News Centerhttps://sites.allegheny.edu/news
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 20:31:25 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.441.637502-80.152144AlleghenyNewsAndEventshttps://feedburner.google.comAllegheny College to Host National History Day Competitionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/5_KX5hhe8tg/
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:28:36 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14967Allegheny College will host the northwestern Pennsylvania National History Day academic competition on Saturday, Feb. 24, with middle- and high-school students presenting projects related to the theme of “Conflict and Compromise in History.”

More than 20 students from schools in Erie, Crawford, McKean and Warren Counties are set to participate in the regional event. Students work closely with their teachers and present the products of their independent research in the form of multimedia documentaries and exhibits, and as websites and essays.

“The Allegheny College History Department is very excited to host the National History Day competition for the first time,” said Judson Herrman, Frank T. McClure professor of Greek and Latin and chair of the History Department. “We look forward to welcoming students and teachers from around the region to our campus and seeing the creativity and hard work that students have invested in their projects. Allegheny has a long tradition of pride in student research, and we are excited to connect with local students who are dedicated to independent scholarship.”

Faculty and students from the Allegheny History Department, along with other area university and high school faculty, will serve as judges at the competition.

Awardees from the regional National History Day competitions in Pennsylvania will advance to the statewide competition in Carlisle in May. From there, students will have an opportunity to advance to the national competition in June at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Established in 1974, National History Day is a nonprofit education organization that offers year-long academic programs that engage over half a million middle- and high-school students around the world annually in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. National History Day also seeks to improve the quality of history education by providing professional development opportunities and curriculum materials for educators.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/02/16/allegheny-college-to-host-national-history-day-competition/Allegheny Senior Owen Ludwig Receives Davey Foundation Arbor Grant Awardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/GKAvTo-Anvo/
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:02:53 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14961Allegheny College senior Owen Ludwig is one of this year’s recipients of the national Davey Foundation Arbor Grant Award, given annually to about 50 students who focus on forestry, agriculture, or another green industry.

Ludwig is an environmental science major with a geology minor, and the $1,000 grant will support his work in green industries.

“Green industries are important to me for a number of reasons,” says Ludwig, who is from Monclova, Ohio. “I have a passion for the natural world that originates from a childhood spent exploring the outdoors. I think that it is important for everyone to have at least a basic connection to and understanding of the environment. It is critical that we take care of the Earth because we are dependent upon it to survive. Green industries work toward addressing these two fundamental issues: they try to enhance people’s connection with the environment, and they strive to care for the world in which we live.”

Over the past 25 years, the Davey Foundation has provided more than half a million dollars of support to students for their academic work. For Ludwig, the grant has eased the financial pressures of college and allowed him to focus on his education, activities and future plans.

Outside of the classroom, Ludwig works with Firth Maple Products, where he has been employed for two years. “Firth is a logging company that utilizes forward-thinking strategies to ensure that their timber harvesting is sustainable and promotes the health of the forest,” Ludwig says. “As a result, Firth is fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment in which we can extract natural resources without compromising the future of the forest.”

Environmental Science Professor Rich Bowden suggested Ludwig apply for the grant. “Owen has worked with me as a research assistant in my laboratory for the last three years, assisting with a number of lab and field projects, as well as forest education efforts,” says Bowden. “Owen has been a terrific assistant, helping as much as his busy schedule has allowed. His experience, depth of knowledge, and sense of responsibility made it a no-brainer for me to depend on him completely. Importantly to me, Owen is a sound, caring person. He is extremely thoughtful, compassionate, and kind to those around him.”

Ludwig’s growth through Allegheny courses and his experience with Firth have helped make him a deserving recipient of the award. “Owen benefits rightfully in the recognition granted by a nationally recognized tree and forest service company due to his many accomplishments,” says Eric Pallant, the Christine Scott Nelson Professor of Environmental Sustainability and chair of the Department of Environmental Science. “Owen typifies the caliber of Allegheny’s students, as well as the breadth of opportunities available to students in environmental science.”

Many recipients of this award come from larger schools with dedicated forestry departments. ”Owen’s receipt of this award is a testimony to his energy in pursuing opportunities and his passion for forest protection,” says Bowden.

After graduation in May, Ludwig has a summer job planned with the Appalachian Mountain Club in New Hampshire, where he will lead teenagers on extended backcountry canoeing and backpacking trips. “Being a guide in the outdoor industry has been a longstanding dream of mine, and I’m excited to be able to share my passion for the outdoors with teenagers,” Ludwig says. After the summer, he intends to return to Meadville and continue his work with Firth Maple Products.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/02/13/allegheny-senior-owen-ludwig-receives-davey-foundation-arbor-grant-award/People and Places: February 2018http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Ji1Uti4bYI0/
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 15:19:27 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14927Professor Emeritus of Art George Roland exhibited work in a group exhibition entitled “Just Say’n” at Bottle Works Gallery near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The exhibition, held under the auspices of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, was selected by Pittsburgh-based curator Jill Larson. The exhibition opened December 8, 2017, and continued through January 27, 2018.

Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace has received a 2018–19 Fulbright Award to teach and conduct research in the South American nation of Chile. Mattiace plans to live in Chile for five months beginning in February 2019. Part of her time will be spent teaching and lecturing on immigration, Latin American indigenous and social movements, and Mexican politics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The other time will be spent doing research, comparing indigenous communities in a border region of Mexico with indigenous communities on the western Bolivian border with Chile. Mattiace also plans to establish contact with Chilean indigenous colleagues in Santiago for a future book project.

In addition, over the last three years, Mattiace has been working with a group of 10 GLCA colleagues (five humanists and five social scientists) on a collaborative research project. The results of their work have been recently published in the edited volume, Mapping the Megalopolis: Order and Disorder in Mexico City (Lexington Press, 2018). Mattiace has two chapters in the volume, co-authored with Jennifer Johnson (Kenyon College).

The Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication voted to approve the appointment of Associate Professor of English and Director of Writing Alexis Hart to the CCC Editorial Board for a three-year term.

Assistant Professor of English Aline Lo recently published a book chapter titled “Guilt Trips: Returning to the Homeland in The Betrayal” in the collection The Humanities in a World Upside-Down, which was edited by Ignacio Lopez-Calvo and published through Cambridge Scholars. Prof. Lo presented work from this chapter for last semester’s Faculty Lecture Series.

Valerie Hurst ’18

Valerie Hurst ’18 presented a poster entitled “Integrating a Fragmented System of Care: A platform for contextualization of community wellness data in rural, Northwestern PA” at the AcademyHealth Annual Data Dissemination Conference in December 2017. The presentation highlighted the first year of work on a collaborative project between Allegheny College and the Crawford County Systems of Care Network. The goal of this project is to use GIS mapping tools to identify community wellness-related needs and inequalities. The presentation was co-authored by Ashley Weibel ’18, Christopher Shaffer (GIS manager/instructor in the Environmental Science/Studies Department), and Assistant Professor of Global Health Studies and Biology Becky Dawson ’00.

Assistant Professor of Geology Katie Tamulonis gave a talk at the annual Geological Society of America meeting in Seattle, Washington. Her talk was entitled “Optimizing Marcellus Formation field development, well performance, and operations by integrating geologic and engineering data into a volumetric geologic model.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology Sharane Simon coauthored the paper entitled “An exhumed fine-grained meandering channel in the lower Permian Clear Fork Formation, north-central Texas: Processes of mud accumulation and the role of vegetation in channel dynamics,” which was accepted for publication in the IAS Special Publication (IAS48) on “Fluvial meanders and their sedimentary products in the rock record.” IAS Special Publications is a book series of thematic volumes edited by specialists on subjects of central interests to sedimentologists.

Richard Bowden, professor of environmental science, coauthored the paper “Long-term litter manipulation alters soil organic matter turnover in a temperate deciduous forest,” published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. This 20-year study at Allegheny’s Bousson Environmental Research Reserve shows that roots exert stronger controls over soil organic matter than do leaves. Management efforts that seek to increase forest productivity as a means to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution may be of only limited effectiveness because increased inputs of leaves to the forest floor do not result in long-term increases of soil carbon. Models that aim to quantify soil C sequestration need to distinguish between above- and below-ground sources of organic matter inputs.

Nia Burnett ’18, Cameron Neiblum ’20, Melissa Burnett ’20, Rebecca Montgomery ’20, Alyssa Hall ’21, Audrey Serguievksi ’20, and Margo Beck ’21 recently served as judges for the annual Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences (PJAS) Region X Science Competition, held at Penn State Behrend. PJAS is a statewide organization designed to stimulate and promote interest in science among junior and high school students.

Hayley Diemer ’19, Dakotah Manson ’18, Sarah Shapely ’20, and Dalia Wellens ’19 explored what it takes to pursue careers in public service by participating in Ready to Run Pittsburgh, a bipartisan training program to encourage women to seek government leadership positions. The students attended the Jan. 27 full-day workshop through financial support from Allegheny’s Center for Political Participation and Jennifer Daurora ’99, who serves on the College’s Board of Trustees. Allegheny alumna Dana Brown ’00 is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University, which hosted this event.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/02/04/people-and-places-february-2018/Political Science Professor Shannan Mattiace Receives Fulbright Awardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/DC14YrT3o7E/
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 19:54:02 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14871Shannan Mattiace, professor and chair of the Political Science Department at Allegheny College, has received a 2018–19 Fulbright Award to teach and conduct research in the South American nation of Chile.

Mattiace said she plans to live in Chile for five months beginning in February 2019.Shannan Mattiace will be spending five months in Chile in 2019 as a Fulbright Award winner.

“It has been my dream for decades to receive a Fulbright Award,” Mattiace said. “Almost 30 years ago I lived in Santiago, Chile, for three months as a State Department student intern and have longed to return. I will be returning as a scholar of Mexican politics and hope to share my interest and experience on Mexican politics with Chilean students and professors at the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago.”

The Fulbright Program, which increases mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Only about 500 teaching and/or research Fulbrights are awarded each year.

“I am incredibly honored to have been chosen by the Fulbright Commission to be a cultural ambassador to Latin America, representing the long-standing ties between North and South America. I so appreciate Allegheny College’s support of me in this project, which has been unfailing,” Mattiace said.

“The money that funds Fulbright awards is carved out of the State Department’s budget, so folks in Washington definitely think of the program as an effort at soft diplomacy,” said Patrick Jackson, Allegheny’s director of fellowship advising. “One of the reasons I think Shannan’s project was chosen is the way that she was able to successfully and convincingly draw a connection between the work she plans to do on the Chilean frontier with Bolivia and Argentina with interests that the United States has with regard to our own border with Mexico. Chile is trying to solve many of the same complex problems with indigenous communities and migrant workers that the United States and Mexico are trying to address. As an American specialist on Mexican politics, Shannan is in a unique position to study what is going on in Chile.”

Part of her time will be spent teaching and lecturing on immigration, Latin American indigenous and social movements, and Mexican politics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), Mattiace said. The other time will be spent doing research, comparing indigenous communities in a border region of Mexico with indigenous communities on the western Bolivian border with Chile, she said. Mattiace also plans to establish contact with Chilean indigenous colleagues in Santiago for a future book project, she said.

“Latin Americans know far less about their neighbors and their region than many of them know about the United States and the rest of the world,” Mattiace said. “As a U.S. scholar of Mexico and of Latin America, I hope to bring a distinct perspective on Latin American politics to Chilean students. The research project on indigenous communities is explicitly comparative, examining indigenous communities in two border regions — Chile/Bolivia and Mexico/U.S. — that have been successful in keeping violence low through self-governance and autonomy in contexts of illicit activity. As Latin America is the most violent region of the world, understanding how to reduce levels of violence and crime is of intense interest to a host of actors, including U.S. policy makers.”

Mattiace becomes the 14th Allegheny faculty member to receive a Fulbright Award in the past 20 years.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/29/political-science-professor-shannan-mattiace-receives-fulbright-award/Allegheny to Host Visiting Scholar Who Will Address Issues of Race in Shakespearean Theaterhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/RiuwDEpJzNo/
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 15:32:53 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14652Ayanna Thompson, a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar and one of the world’s foremost authorities on issues of race in Shakespeare and the impact of nontraditional casting on audiences today, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 15, in Ford Chapel at Allegheny College.

A reception will follow in the Ford Chapel Oratory. The free event is open to the public.

Thompson’s talk is titled “Shakespeare, Race, and Performance: What We Still Don’t Know.” She is president-elect of the Shakespeare Association of America and a professor of English at George Washington University, specializing in Renaissance drama and issues of race in/as performance.

She is the author of “Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centered Approach,” “Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America” and “Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage.” She wrote the new introduction for the revised “Arden 3 Othello,” and is the editor of “Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race” and “Performance and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance.”

Currently on the editorial boards of the “Shakespeare Quarterly,” “Renaissance Drama” and “Shakespeare Bulletin,” she has served on the board of directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars.

Thompson will be on Allegheny’s campus for a two-day program on February 15–16 that will include classroom discussions, meeting with students, and her public lecture.

Phi Beta Kappa is a national scholastic society which has had a chapter at Allegheny since 1902. It was founded in 1776, has chapters at 286 colleges and universities, and has more than half a million members throughout the country. The Visiting Scholar Program gives undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The 15 men and women participating during 2017–2018 will visit 110 colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, spending two days on each campus.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/26/allegheny-to-host-visiting-scholar-who-will-address-issues-of-race-in-shakespearean-theater/Allegheny College Featured in Princeton Review’s “Colleges That Pay You Back”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/RreC42BVOVY/
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 15:09:56 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14646Allegheny College is one of the nation’s best colleges for students seeking an outstanding education with great career preparation and at an affordable price, according to the Princeton Review.

The education services company features Allegheny in the 2018 edition of its newly released book “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck.”

The Princeton Review chose the schools based on data it collected in 2016–17 from its surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges. The company also factored in data from its surveys of students attending the schools and surveys of school alumni that PayScale.com conducted through April 2017.

In all, The Princeton Review evaluated more than 40 data points to tally ROI (return on investment) ratings of the colleges that determined its selection of the 200 schools for the book. Topics covered everything from academics, cost, and financial aid to graduation rates, student debt, alumni salaries and job satisfaction.

Allegheny also ranked No. 15 nationally on the guidebook’s list of the Top 25 Best Schools for Making an Impact. Schools were selected based on student ratings and responses to survey questions covering community service opportunities at their school, student government, sustainability efforts, and on-campus student engagement. The Princeton Review also took into account PayScale.com’s percentage of alumni from each school that reported having high job meaning.

“We salute Allegheny College, and all of our Colleges That Pay You Back schools. They stand out for their outstanding academics and their affordability via generous financial aid to students with need and/or comparatively low sticker prices,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s Editor-in-Chief and lead author of the book. “Students at these colleges also have access to extraordinary career services from their freshman year on, plus a lifetime of valuable alumni support.”

In their profile of Allegheny College, the Princeton Review’s editors praise Allegheny as “a place where students have full control over the education they want to have and ‘can put their talents and skills to their future careers.’” The guidebook cites the college’s emphasis on promoting collaboration and exploration across all subject areas, with students combining their interests and talents to declare both a major and a minor.

Students quoted in the guidebook say that the Allegheny’s small class sizes allow for “as much one-on-one time as you need during office hours” with faculty and that the college’s Office of Career Education is “very helpful and proactive with internships and job placement.” Allegheny faculty members, the guidebook notes, also are “excellent resources” for helping students find and apply for internships.

In addition to its inclusion in “Colleges That Pay You Back,” Allegheny College was named among the top 50 Best Value Schools among national liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 “Best Colleges” rankings. U.S. News also recognized Allegheny as the sixth most innovative national liberal arts college in the country.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/25/allegheny-college-featured-in-princeton-reviews-colleges-that-pay-you-back-2/Megan Ryan Named Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Allegheny Collegehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/c3KrrUd5Gs0/
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:35:02 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14470Megan Ryan has been named executive director of admissions and financial aid at Allegheny College, effective May 3. Ryan, who has more than a decade of experience working in higher education and customer relations, currently serves as associate director of admission at Carnegie Mellon University.

“We are very pleased to welcome Megan to the Allegheny College community,” said Cornell LeSane II, Allegheny vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions. “Her extensive experience in both admissions and financial aid, along with her commitment to strategic decision-making and creative problem-solving, will be a tremendous asset to the college as we continue to build strong connections with prospective students and families.”

At CMU Ryan has been promoted twice — from assistant director of admission to senior assistant director and then to associate director. She previously held positions with Villanova University International Study in Galway, Ireland, and Banana Republic.

“The sense of community at Allegheny College is so strong,” Ryan said. “I’m excited to join a team of admission and financial aid professionals who are passionate about the students they work with and the work they do.”

In 2013, Ryan received the James McKeever Promising Professional Award, given to individuals who have demonstrated both outstanding job performance and meaningful professional services beyond their institutions, from the Pennsylvania Association for College Admissions Counseling. She serves as an at-large delegate to the association’s executive committee, has chaired sub-committees during its annual conferences, and presents frequently to colleagues and prospective students through the organization.

Ryan also is a member of the National Association of College Admission Counseling, Chi Omega National Fraternity, and SafeZone.

Ryan earned a Bachelor of Arts in communication, with minors in history and Irish studies, from Villanova University, a Master of Arts in Irish studies from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a Master of Public Management, with highest distinction, from CMU.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/22/megan-ryan-named-executive-director-of-admissions-and-financial-aid-at-allegheny-college/Allegheny Presents Its Annual International Film Festivalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/KxCLtU9z1QA/
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 14:26:18 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14444The Allegheny College Department of Modern and Classical Languages will present its free 2018 International Film Festival, a five-week series of foreign films to be shown at The Movies at Meadville at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays between Jan. 31 and Feb. 28.

The series begins on Jan. 31 with the 2017 French film “Faces Places” in which 89-year-old Agnes Varda and 33-year-old French photographer and muralist JR team up to co-direct this documentary. They travel through the villages of France in JR’s photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories, and producing portraits of the villagers. The movie documents these encounters as well as the unlikely friendship the filmmakers formed along the way.

A film of Arabic origin, still to be selected, will be screened on Feb.7.

On Feb. 14, “Coming Home,” a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou and released in 2014, will be screened. The story is about a former political prisoner (Chen Daoming) who tries to help his wife (Gong Li) regain her memory and rediscover their love for each other.

“Julieta,” a Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodovar and released in 2016, will be shown on Feb. 21. In this film, a chance encounter causes a woman (Emma Suárez) to reflect on the tragic circumstances surrounding the disappearance of her daughter.

On Feb. 28, “Axolotl Overkill,” a German film directed by Helene Hegemann and released in 2017, will be screened. In this movie, Mifti, a 16-year-old, begins to develop an obsession with Alice, an enigmatic and much older white-collar criminal.

The movies are open to the public. The theater is located at 11155 Highland Drive. Free round-trip shuttle service to the theater will be provided for students, departing North Main Street at Brooks Walk at 6:10 and 6:30 p.m. each Wednesday.
The films were selected by the Allegheny faculty, coordinated by Associate Professor of Spanish Wilfredo Hernández.

Photo Caption: “Faces Places,” a French film, is a documentary by filmmakers Agnes Varda and JR.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/11/allegheny-presents-its-annual-international-film-festival/Allegheny Students Learn to Be ‘Shopping Buddies’ for Refugee Familieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/roC1bFz8l7A/
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 15:58:00 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14421American grocery stores can be a mind-boggling labyrinth for refugees settling in this country: Aisles and aisles of marketing glitz, competing brands, confusing nutrition information, and puzzling pricing that isn’t easy to decipher for those new to the shopping game.

Recognizing that challenge, Allegheny College is training students to work with refugee families in Erie, Pennsylvania, to help them navigate unfamiliar grocery stores, as well as apply for the Women, Infants, and Children’s (WIC) Nutrition Program.

Erie has a large refugee community that has been growing steadily, but transitioning into the new area can be a daunting task for the families. That is why Professors Caryl Waggett and Kirsten Peterson decided to partner with WIC, the Area Health Education Center (AHEC), and the Multicultural Health Evaluation Delivery Systems (MHEDS).

“I just can’t imagine moving to a new country with nothing other than your family, and navigating this incredibly Byzantine system,” says Peterson, referring to WIC’s complex benefit system. “Everything is just so new and so different. I admire and have tremendous appreciation for these women who are even willing to try.”

For the past six years, Waggett has been working with refugee populations as part of one of her classes, especially focusing on the Erie International Institute, a resettlement agency. She has seen the agency’s struggles due to its very limited resources for helping incoming refugees. One main limitation is the time volunteers are granted to work with the families. The agency representatives have 90 days to spend with the family, and as a result focus their time firstly on getting the head of the household–usually the father–a job, and then getting the children enrolled in the school system.

“Everyone recognized that women were getting the last bit of attention,” Waggett says. “The head of the household was typically the male in most of the families that were arriving, and they got a lot of attention, because getting somebody employed is really essential for long-term viability and health in the family. That’s the single top priority, followed by getting kids in the school system. Women tend to be the last on the list in terms of getting critical resources, but typically women are also the functional head of the house; they’re the center of making sure everything’s running, keeping people from getting sick, taking care of all the food and management, and when they arrive here they’re secondary to all of that.”

Professor Caryl Waggett

Peterson serves on the AHEC board in Erie, where the executive had the initial idea of working in conjunction with WIC and MHEDS in starting a program to help the mothers. She had the idea and the resources but needed volunteers to carry out the program – so Peterson turned to Allegheny. She and Waggett recruited students and trained them with the necessary information and skills they would need to help refugee families.

Peterson says she immediately thought of Waggett when looking for a way to recruit students. “When anyone asks me about refugees, Caryl’s the first person that comes to my mind. She knows what she’s doing, she’s got the students or knows the students who are most likely to want to be involved in this kind of thing. And even though we’re 35 miles away and there are colleges that are closer, it’s our students who have already been involved in working with refugee populations, not only in Erie, in various capacities.”

Erin Zehr ’19 was one of the first group of trainees for the Shopping Buddies program. “I was part of the first cohort of students who was trained as a ‘shopping buddy’ during the seminar course last semester. We took a course to learn about critical nutritional needs, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children Food and Nutrition Service) guidelines, socio-political challenges in the countries of origin, and cultural barriers that refugee families typically encounter.”

Students selected for the program take a Global Health Fieldwork class, which is designed to help students think about the practical components of work outside the classroom, focusing on theory and learning skills. Students from a variety of different programs take the course, and learn some material as a group but also split off into independent groups focusing on the various projects they are participating in.

Once trained, the students are paired and connected with a family, as well as an interpreter through one of Erie’s services. They will get to work with the family only a few times because the families get WIC benefits monthly, and thus shop for groceries once a month.

Waggett says, “Our hope is that in working with the families multiple times, they are able to figure out the store and then start to become sufficiently competent and independent, so they don’t need an interpreter or us with them, and even with limited language skills they are able to go shopping comfortably and independently. Having more time to interact with the mom up front to hear what their issues and needs are helps in getting them to be more effective in what they’re doing. The idea is that we’re strengthening the women’s capacity, that we’re not just shoppers. All that entails is thinking about the women, networking with them, helping their network with each other, and thinking about other ways to strengthen the tools they have to address their needs.”

Through helping the refugee families in the learning process, the students have in turn learned a lot about the families, their home countries, and the resettlement process. It’s partially because of this that every one of the students who participated has contacted Waggett or Peterson about wanting to continue in some capacity.

“I have learned about the demographics of the refugee population in Erie and the barriers they face, particularly with navigating an unfamiliar dietary landscape,” Zehr says. “With this program I have gone on grocery store visits, where with the aid of an interpreter, another student and myself helped a refugee mother understand and use her WIC benefits. This process has shown me the significant challenges refugees face from their countries of origin, to refugee camps, and after they are resettled in the United States. I have learned about the resettlement process and the policy which surrounds that, and all of the significant barriers which refugees experience in the United States. More abstractly, I have also learned how important it is to be adaptable and innovative when there are significant restrictions and obstacles for the refugee community, as there have been since this past January.”

Waggett explains that the program’s focus on the mother to improve the entire household’s capability is based on development studies over the past forty years. The World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and various U.N. Initiatives have all found that investment in women’s health and women in general, especially when they have children, will have a huge multiplier effect.

“So if you invest in women you’ll see the kids get better, the community increases because they re-invest the money in their friends who are trying to grow food, and the small businesses locally. That same multiplier effect does not exist by investing in other sectors of the population. We’ve recognized that one of the most effective strategies is putting women in this role where you invest in them, and they immediately invest for the rest of their family. This effort is designed specifically to focus on improving the strategies for helping women and women with children, and get it to get improve much more rapidly so that they can strengthen their families much faster. It’s a really important approach for a number of reasons. It matches what we understand about the theory of how to improve people’s livelihoods, especially when they’ve moved to a new area.”

Currently, Waggett and Peterson are in the process of interviewing and selecting a new group of students for the spring 2018 semester. Since they have some students returning to the program, Peterson is hoping to implement a buddy system.

“Someone who had already done it would pair with a student new to the program and a family, because it’s very exciting but also can be scary – you’re meeting a family who doesn’t speak your language, and you’re working with an interpreter who you haven’t met before.”

Waggett adds, “students aren’t necessarily facile with shopping themselves – most of them haven’t been menu planning and food planning for an entire month on their own, and certainly the WIC is an added challenge that many of our students aren’t familiar with. Navigating WIC benefits in and of itself is part of our role. WIC is designed to help a unique population, but has some incredibly difficult challenges to it.”

Recently, Waggett and Zehr shared the initiative at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), which held a conference through their global health program on the needs of refugees. Waggett recalled, “This program was met with a lot of enthusiasm but surprise as well – no one had seen anything quite like this. A lot of refugees come in each year, and while Erie is a surprisingly large host city, it is certainly not the only one. We haven’t seen this type of model focused on supporting women, and I think it’s really intriguing – a great opportunity for both the refugee community and for our students.”

Says Peterson, “We’re pioneers.”

Editor’s Note: Peterson and Waggett are two of many in the Allegheny community working towards building a multidisciplinary area of strength specifically directed towards refugees, to implement initiatives that serve the community as well as the students on campus. Each summer for the past four years Allegheny students have interned with the Erie International Institute assisting with resettlement efforts. In Spring 2016 the College sponsored “Welcome the Stranger” conference here on campus focused on refugees. In November 2017 Allegheny’s Global Citizen Scholars Program sponsored the visit of “New Americans in the Rust Belt” photographer Maitham Basha-Agha. In addition, Allegheny has a number of faculty who have worked on a variety of refugee projects over the past years, including Profs. Shanna Kirschner (POLSC / IS/MENA), Shannan Mattiace (POLSC, IS), Brian Miller (HIST/IS), Younus Mirza (RELST/IS), Laura Reeck (FRNCH/IS and Global Citizen Scholars), Dave Roncolato (COMJ and Global Citizen Scholars), Eric Boynton (RELST), and Aline Lo (ENGL). They are building relationships with members of new American refugee communities, and with a number of Erie-based agencies.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/09/allegheny-students-learn-to-be-shopping-buddies-for-refugee-families/Wissinger, Balik Present at Entomological Society of America Meetingshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Ztvaw2D1L5Y/
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:33:08 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14408Professor of Environmental Science and Biology Scott Wissinger and Jared Balik ’16 presented an invited paper in the symposium Impacts of Climate Change on “Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Invertebrates: Research from Earth’s Coldest and Most Rapidly Changing Environments” at the Entomological Society of America meetings in November 2017. The paper was titled “Elevational range shifts in alpine aquatic insects and consequences for ecosystem function” and included findings from Balik’s senior research at Allegheny.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/05/wissinger-balik-present-at-entomological-society-of-america-meetings/Environmental Science Major Natalie DeSantis Receives Conference Scholarshiphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Dn0h1zNq6TI/
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:28:22 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14405Natalie DeSantis ’20, an environmental science major, received a scholarship from the Georgia-based organization One Hundred Miles to attend its “Coastal Conservation in Action Choosing to Lead” conference on January 13–14, 2018, in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Allegheny graduate Megan Derosiers ’98 is the executive director of One Hundred Miles.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/05/environmental-science-major-natalie-desantis-receives-conference-scholarship/Mattiace Receives Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Awardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/1FScTcA5TcI/
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:25:32 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14402Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace and co-authors Guillermo Trejo (University of Notre Dame) and Sandra Ley (CIDE, Mexico City) are the recipients of a Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Award for their work on the project “Criminal Violence and Indigenous Resistance. Why Ethnic Autonomy Institutions Deter Drug Violence in Mexico.” They will use this $40,000 grant to conduct a survey of community police and justice “users” in eastern Guerrero, Mexico. Mattiace presented this work at the Faculty Lecture Series in March 2017.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/05/mattiace-receives-harry-frank-guggenheim-research-award/Krone Presents Papers at American Academy of Religion Meetinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/tiXNODi2xhE/
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:21:59 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14397Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Jewish Life Adrienne Krone recently presented two papers on her research at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, which was held in Boston, Mass., November 17–21. She presented a paper about a beekeeping program at a Jewish organization in Canada called Shoresh entitled “Humans and the Humble Bees” and a paper about Jewish agricultural settlements in nineteenth-century North Dakota called “The Lure of a Land Based Utopia.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/05/krone-presents-papers-at-american-academy-of-religion-meeting/Community Ballroom Dance Classes to Begin Jan. 15http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/SzlNHCHcbH4/
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:58:38 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14392Allegheny College’s Dance and Movement Studies Program will offer community ballroom lessons beginning Monday, Jan. 15. Classes will be taught by Dance and Movement Studies faculty Betsy Sumerfield and will be held in the Montgomery Performance Space on Mondays from 6:45 to 8 p.m.

The cost is $60 per person or $100 per couple for a total of 10 lessons. Participants should wear either socks or ballroom shoes. For more information, please call (814) 332-2813.

]]>
https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/03/community-ballroom-dance-classes-to-begin-jan-15/College to Host MLK Events Open to the Publichttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/iMD6PEDgiwU/
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:17:40 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14359Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville, an author, educator and community activist in New Orleans, will present a keynote address as part of Allegheny College’s weeklong celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The free, public talk will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. in Ford Chapel on the Allegheny campus.

Vaz-Deville is the author of “The ‘Baby Dolls’: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition” published by Louisiana State University Press in 2013. She is associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of education at Xavier University of Louisiana. In addition, she is passionate about community engagement, spirituality, food altar traditions, Mardi Gras cuisine and expressive arts.

In addition to Vaz-Deville’s talk, other public events during the week include:

The Unity Shabbat Celebration on Friday, Jan. 19, at 5 p.m. in the Jewish Community Center. Join members of Hillel and the Meadville community for a celebration of the legacy of Dr. King and fellowship with one another.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Inter-Religious Service on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 11 a.m. in Ford Chapel. This is an interfaith service focusing on reflections about Dr. King’s legacy. Allegheny students and Meadville community members will perform readings and music, and deliver messages centering on Dr. King’s commitment to activism.

The theme of the weeklong celebration of the life of Dr. King on the Allegheny campus is: “Beloved Community: Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the Beloved Community.”

For more information, contact the Allegheny College Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Social Justice (IDEAS) Center at (814) 332-2718.

Photo by Irving Johnson III

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/03/college-to-host-mlk-events-open-to-the-public/President Mullen Appointed to Project Pericles Governing Boardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/HlzJfIRh6ho/
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 19:17:01 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14349Allegheny College President James H. Mullen, Jr. has been named to the board of directors of Project Pericles, a national not-for-profit organization funded by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation that is committed to instilling in students a sense of social responsibility and civic concern.

Project Pericles is a consortium of more than 30 colleges and universities that promotes civic engagement within higher education and is based in New York City. Allegheny is one of the original 10 schools on which Project Pericles was founded in 2000.

Building on the innovative vision of the late Eugene M. Lang, Project Pericles works in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. The national office of Project Pericles collaborates with Periclean colleges and universities to encourage faculty to incorporate civic engagement and social responsibility into the curriculum, and to empower students as effective advocates and leaders. Its research projects and publications foster greater awareness within higher education about the value and importance of civic engagement.

“I look forward to expanding my relationship with Project Pericles,” said Mullen, who also serves on the organization’s Presidents’ Council. “Seeing the important community work that students accomplish through the auspices of Project Pericles makes me proud that Allegheny is a founding and integral member of this consortium.”

Mullen is the 21st president of Allegheny College, taking office on Aug. 1, 2008. During his tenure, he has guided the college through its bicentennial, publicly launched the largest comprehensive fund-raising campaign in the college’s history, and established the Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life, among other accomplishments.

A sought-after lecturer in public policy and civility in public discourse, Mullen also has served as chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE), the nation’s most visible and influential higher education association, and continues to serve ACE as a representative of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Mullen also serves as chair of the board of directors of the Great Lakes College Association, as vice president of the North Coast Athletic Conference, and on boards for the Pennsylvania Economy League of Greater Pittsburgh and the Meadville Medical Center.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/01/02/president-mullen-appointed-to-project-pericles-governing-board/Valerie Lohr To Lead Gator Field Hockeyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Cc2NUo6LIWA/
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 17:38:47 +0000https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14344Allegheny College Director of Athletics and Recreation Portia Hoeg has announced the hiring of Valerie Lohr as the first head field hockey coach in Allegheny history.

A field hockey and lacrosse standout at Lehigh University, Lohr boasts a resumé that includes over a decade of field hockey coaching experience at both the collegiate and high school levels.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Allegheny as the first head field hockey coach,” said Lohr. “It is an honor, and I cannot wait to get started bringing in the first ever recruiting class. This is such a special opportunity, as everything the first team does will be a record in the history books and lay the groundwork for years to come. The tradition, passion, and excellence will be created and nurtured by this very special first team, and I could not be happier.”

“Valerie distinguished herself among a tremendous pool of candidates,” said Hoeg. “Her experience coaching and recruiting at various levels will serve her well in finding the right recruits for an upstart program. She has exceptional skills in relationship building, and I couldn’t be happier with the leadership she will provide for Gator field hockey.

“Like all of our varsity sports,” Hoeg continued, “we have high expectations for the program to not only excel in the community and classroom, but also on the pitch. Our goal is to embody the tenets of a quality Division III program and be an immediate contender within the North Coast Athletic Conference and beyond. Valerie’s hiring is a vital piece to our vision.”

Most recently, Lohr spent the 2017 season as head coach at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. The Indians finished 12-3-1 overall, and advanced to the championship round of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) Class-A playoffs. The Indians outscored their opponents a combined 70-18 on the season, with the defense posting seven shutouts, and the offense scoring eight or more goals in six different matches. Five Shady Side players earned All-WPIAL accolades.

Lohr is no stranger to starting a program, as she was named the first field hockey coach in program history at Pace University in 2014, while also serving as the compliance director at the NCAA Division II school in Pleasantville, New York. In Pace’s inaugural 2015 season, Lohr guided the Setters to a 6-12 record against a demanding schedule that included matches against seven teams ranked in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association top-20, highlighted by a victory over eighth-ranked LIU-Post. Two Pace players were named All-Northeast 10 Conference, while Halley Rose was named to the Synapse Sports All-Rookie Team, and Margaret McLean was a First Team All-Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) selection. The Settlers were also one of the top performing teams academically in the NE 10, as 19 players landed on the conference’s academic honor roll for holding grade-point averages over 3.0.

From 2007-10, Lohr worked as assistant coach at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., assisting in all aspects of the program including game strategy, practice planning, budgeting, recruiting, scouting, film evaluation, strength and conditioning, and camp/clinic administration. In her four seasons on the staff, the Ducks went a combined 60-29 overall and 20-4 in Empire 8 Conference play, including undefeated conference marks in both 2008 and ’09. The Ducks made three straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2008-10, and picked up first round victories in both 2008 and 2010.

Lohr began her coaching career in August 2003 with a four-year stint at Dickinson College, serving as an assistant for both the Red Devils’ field hockey and women’s lacrosse programs. With the field hockey team, she assisted in all aspects of the program, primarily working with goalkeepers, while also developing game and practice planning, and player training and conditioning.

Lohr has also been very active in coaching at the youth and club levels. In 2009, she was head coach of the Region 6 US Field Hockey Association Futures Program under-16 squad, while she also worked as assistant coach for Somerset, New Jersey-based Edge Field Hockey Club from June 2007-August 2009.

In 2011, she was an assistant coach and head trainer for the Region 5 USFHA Futures Program, before spending two years as a coach for the Revolution Field Hockey Camps in Fairfield, Connecticut. She also was an assistant coach and head trainer for under-16 players in the USFHA Region 4 Futures Program from January-December 2015.

A two sport student-athlete at Lehigh University, Lohr was selected to the 2001 Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, and received the COACHES Award for leadership excellence, and the Treen Scholarship for Academic Merit. After graduating in 2002 with a double major in Political Science and History, she went on to earn a Juris Doctorate Degree from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law and admission to the Pennsylvania Bar in 2006.

Lohr is a member of both the United States Field Hockey Association and the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

“I am excited for the future of the program at Allegheny, and field hockey as a sport,” Lohr said. “Allegheny offers a wonderful blend of rigorous academics and competitive athletics, a perfect combination which I can not wait to share with field hockey student-athletes. There is such a palpable warmth and sense of camaraderie in the athletic department and the entire school. I am so pleased to join the staff and bring my own strengths to the table as we grow this new program and continue to foster the success of all sports. Go Gators!”

The Gator field hockey team will open its inaugural season in August 2019. Fans can follow the team on its official Twitter account, @AlleghenyFH.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/21/valerie-lohr-to-lead-gator-field-hockey/The Allegheny Year in Review, 2017 Editionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/6zAB85vb4AA/
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:21:52 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14256It was a year of accolades, academic accomplishments and astronomical wonder on the campus of Allegheny College. But where did the year go? Many of us pondered that question as winter settled in recently. With that in mind, the Office of College Relations assembled some highlights of what transpired at Allegheny during 2017:

In January, just as students returned to campus, Naim Edwards, a former Peace Corps volunteer who is involved in the water, land and food justice movements, presented a keynote address as part of Allegheny College’s weeklong celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tibetan Buddhist Monks Construct Sand Mandala Painting

At the end of February and beginning of March, Tibetan Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery crafted a mandala sand painting at the Art Galleries of Allegheny as part of the College’s Year of Mindfulness. Hundreds of onlookers filed through the galleries for a week as the monks constructed the mandala. Millions of grains of sand were painstakingly laid into place on a platform over a period of days to form the image of a mandala, a symbolic representation of the universe. Students also chimed in with a sand mandala of their own!

National Civility Prize Goes to Supreme Court Justices

In April, the sixth annual Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life was presented to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the family of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Allegheny President James H. Mullen, Jr. and Governor Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and a 2012 Allegheny College honorary degree recipient, awarded the 2017 Prize at an event in Washington, D.C.

Biology Major Wins Big Idea Competition

In April, Liana Leja, an Allegheny senior majoring in biology, won first prize and $5,000 in the College’s 11th Annual Big Idea Competition, a contest sponsored by the Center for Business and Economics and modeled after ABC’s popular “Shark Tank” show. Leja’s big idea: a mobile healthcare van, called the “Care Van,” that would operate in conjunction with Meadville Medical Center to provide basic health care to a mostly rural, underserved population.

Allegheny College Celebrates 460 Graduates

In May, in its usual splendor, Allegheny honored 460 graduates at its Commencement ceremonies on the lawn outside of historic Bentley Hall. Paula Kerger, president and chief executive officer of PBS, delivered the Commencement address in the College’s 202nd year. She urged graduates to trust their intuition: “Wherever your adventure takes you, I encourage you to find your inner voice — the one that whispers to you about what you were put on this earth to do. The voice that is innately and inherently yours, not an imitation of someone else. And once you find it, never let it go.”

Chamber Choir Embarks on New Zealand Performance Tour

In May, after more than 18 months of planning, preparation and practice, 19 students from the Allegheny Chamber Choir and Professor James Niblock visited New Zealand in what was the choir’s first international performance tour since 1980 and its first-ever tour to the South Pacific. The two-week trip included performances in Auckland, Whitianga, Rotorua, Christchurch and Queenstown, along with plenty of sightseeing opportunities and an introduction to Māori culture. The journey was chronicled in the summer edition of Allegheny magazine.

Solar Eclipse Draws Gators’ Gaze Skyward

One day in August, the sky grew darker, the temperature cooled, and Allegheny students looked skyward. “It’s amazing to see,” said Taylor Cook, 18, a first-year student from Mt. Orab, Ohio. Meadville wasn’t in the path of totality for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse, but it was still way cool to witness at Newton Observatory.

Allegheny Welcomes Class of 2021

Just days later, the incoming class was welcomed at a convocation and matriculation ceremony in Raymond P. Shafer Auditorium. The class represents 377 high schools in 37 states and 26 countries in addition to the United States. The top 10 states from which enrolled students originate are Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, California, Texas, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia.

U.S. News & World Report Names Allegheny Sixth Most Innovative National Liberal Arts College in the Nation

In September, U.S. News & World Report named Allegheny one of the top 100 national liberal arts colleges in the nation — and the sixth most innovative. In its annual rankings, U.S. News highlighted Allegheny among a select group of schools in which students and faculty collaborate to produce intensive, original research and creative work. Allegheny also was recognized among the top 50 national liberal arts colleges in the Best Value Schools category.

Allegheny Featured in The Princeton Review’s “Guide to 375 Green Colleges”

In September, Allegheny was again featured in The Princeton Review’s annual guide to the most environmentally responsible schools. The “Guide to 375 Green Colleges” highlights schools with exceptional commitments to sustainability and includes profiles of each school’s admission requirements, cost and financial aid, and student body, as well as detailed “Green Facts” for some schools.

College Honors Alan Novak and T.J. Rooney as Inaugural Recipients of the Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania

Also, in September, President James H. Mullen, Jr. presented the inaugural Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania to Alan Novak and T.J. Rooney, former chairs of Pennsylvania’s Republican and Democratic state parties. The presentation was made during the 33rd Annual Chamber Dinner in Hershey — an annual gathering of 2,000 political, business and labor leaders from across the Commonwealth.

Allegheny Named Among Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges in the Nation

The accolades kept coming in October as Allegheny was named among the Top 50 best liberal arts colleges in the United States in the 2018 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education U.S. College Rankings. Allegheny ranked No. 47 among all liberal arts colleges in the nation, and No. 128 of more than 1,000 schools, colleges and universities identified in their annual student-focused rankings.

College Announces Plans to Add Field Hockey, Men’s Lacrosse

In October, the Allegheny College Board of Trustees authorized the addition of field hockey and men’s lacrosse to the school’s varsity athletic offerings. Field hockey will begin play in the fall of 2019, while the inaugural season of Gator men’s lacrosse will be spring of 2020.

Allegheny Receives $590,000 Gift to Support Center for Business and Economics, Student Scholarships

In November, it was announced that Allegheny alumnus Lance Zingale ’77 and his wife, Karen, made a $590,000 gift to support Allegheny’s Center for Business and Economics (CBE) and student scholarships at the college. The Zingales’ commitment will establish a $500,000 endowment to fund initiatives at the CBE, which provides business-related internship, research and other experiential-learning opportunities for students.

Allegheny Adds Business Major to its Comprehensive Curriculum

In December, following faculty approval, the College announced that it would offer business as a major beginning in fall 2018. The program will be housed in the Department of Economics, which has provided a business/managerial track within its economics major for 18 years.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/15/the-allegheny-year-in-review-2017-edition/Creek Connections Uses Grant to Purchase New Stream-Testing Kitshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/vGAqFUyRr9g/
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 20:15:14 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14312The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has awarded Allegheny College a grant of $1,500 in support of its Creek Connections program for pH test kits to continue measuring water quality in local watersheds.

K-12 students involved with Creek Connections use the pH kits to test how acidic or basic the water is as part of their overall study of the health of local western Pennsylvania streams. The health of western Pennsylvania creeks has been negatively affected by abandoned mine drainage waters that are sometimes acidic. Meters that students were using were at times difficult to use, read and maintain.

“With this grant, we were able to purchase pH test kits for our participating teachers and students to use this year and compare data collected with the pH meters we have been using in the past,” said Wendy Kedzierski, project director of Creek Connections.

“The pH meters can be tricky to maintain and we frequently had problems with them not working. We hope the data collected this year will show that the new kit gives reliable data, and we can make the switch to just using the new kits in the future,” Kedzierski said.

“We believe teachers and students prefer using the kit as there is more to it than just reading the numbers on the screen of the meter. … Ultimately the switch to the new kit will also save us money. The kit itself should never need to be replaced,” she said. “Overall, the pH kits provide a better experience for the students and their teachers and more reliable, accurate data to determine the health of the creeks.”

Through Creek Connections, Allegheny College forges partnerships with regional K-12 schools to turn waterways in northwest Pennsylvania, western Ohio, western Michigan and the Pittsburgh area into outdoor environmental laboratories. Emphasizing a hands-on, inquiry-based investigation of local waterways, this project annually involves over 40 different secondary schools and the classes of 50 teachers.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy grant program provides assistance to the region’s watershed groups. Financial support for these projects was provided by the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, which is dedicated to the economic, physical and social health of the communities served by Dominion Energy companies.

Since 2005, the conservancy and the Dominion Foundation have collaborated to help enhance water quality and watershed initiatives through this grant program, which has awarded $343,475 to more than 115 organizations. “The Mini Grant Program offers invaluable funding for smaller volunteer-based organizations and helps them to administer and complete a variety of different projects – like tree plantings and water monitoring – that are important to sustaining and enhancing local watersheds,” said Don Houser, Dominion’s state policy advisor.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/14/creek-connections-uses-grant-to-purchase-new-stream-testing-kits/Allegheny College Introduces New Major in Businesshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/MxXL12uMwz0/
Mon, 11 Dec 2017 14:55:44 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14241Allegheny College will introduce a new major in business that integrates classroom learning with experiential opportunities available through the college’s Center for Business and Economics. The program will be offered beginning with the 2018–19 academic year by the Department of Economics, which has provided a business/managerial track within its economics major for 18 years.

“Our increasingly complex and connected world demands business leaders who excel as professionals and understand their responsibility to solve problems affecting society at large,” Allegheny President James H. Mullen, Jr., said. “Our new major in business builds on our existing strength in business education and is designed to provide students with the foundation to advance in their careers, instill in them the ability to adapt in a constantly evolving marketplace, and inspire their commitment to contribute as local and global citizens.”

The business major incorporates core coursework in economics, accounting, management, statistics, ethics and communications. Students also can take courses in important areas such as entrepreneurship, finance, human resource management, marketing, international business and organizational behavior.

Through the college’s Center for Business and Economics, business majors at Allegheny can capitalize on internships, research, study abroad programs and other experiential-learning activities. For example, the center coordinates trips to New York City and other major cities for students to visit leading corporations, invites seasoned executives to campus to interact with students, and sponsors the annual Zingale Big Idea Competition, which awards $10,000 in prizes to students seeking funding for their business concepts.

“Along with equipping students with fundamental quantitative skills and advanced knowledge, we are focused on educating the next generation of business leaders to think critically, communicate clearly, consider problems from multiple perspectives and step forward to develop innovative solutions,” Stephen Onyeiwu, professor and chair in the Department of Economics, said. “The business major also will challenge students to put their classroom learning into practice through our Center for Business and Economics, which brings together a wide range of meaningful opportunities for students to interact with industry leaders, gain career experience and think more expansively about their future.”

Like all academic majors at Allegheny, the business major will require students to complete a Senior Comprehensive Project, an original piece of scholarly or creative work similar to a master’s thesis. All Allegheny students also declare a minor or a second major from an academic division outside of their major. This curriculum is designed to help students develop big-picture thinking and problem-solving skills.

“We want to do more than simply prepare students majoring in business to succeed in their first job,” Onyeiwu said. “That initial step in their career is certainly important, but beyond that we want to empower our graduates to pivot as businesses change and the needs of society grow.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/11/allegheny-college-introduces-new-major-in-business/Lakins Serves as Invited External Reviewer at Juniatahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/WPEQ2dGGf-Q/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 19:30:51 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14216Professor of Mathematics Tamara Lakins participated this fall in the Juniata College Department of Mathematics self study as an invited member of the external review team.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/lakins-serves-as-invited-external-reviewer-at-juniata/Sheffield Completes completed a Master of Arts Degree in Medieval and Renaissance Literary Studieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Wyhk0Xn42HU/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 19:06:54 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14215Professor of Chemistry Ann Sheffield has completed a Master of Arts degree in Medieval and Renaissance Literary Studies at Durham University (UK). Her Master’s dissertation was entitled, “Postcolonial Perspectives on the Conversion to Christianity in Medieval Icelandic Literature: Heathens and Christians, Colonists and Kings.” Professor Sheffield’s degree was awarded “with distinction,” the highest level granted in the UK system.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/__trashed-2/Moore Leads Workshop and Presents Researchhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/yNKKJL3A7_Q/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 19:00:34 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14228In late October, Professor Heather Moore led a workshop on race and racism as part of the Cultural Competency Institute at SUNY Fredonia. Professor Moore also presented original research at the American Educational Studies Association national conference. Her paper was titled, “Re-reading Dope: Re-fashioning Gifted Black Male Student Status in Mainstream American Film.”

Charles Ross ’20 (a community & justice studies major and education studies minor) presented with Professor Heather Moore at the American Educational Studies Association annual meeting. Charles’ paper was titled, “Straight Outta Ann Arbor: A Critical Analysis of the Multifaceted Identities of Black Male Student Athletes.” Ross was one of few undergraduate students who presented at this professional conference. His paper will be submitted for publication in an upcoming edited book collection.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/moore-leads-workshop-and-presents-research/Weir Gives Talk at University of Otago and University of Aucklandhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Nu6V6AD-DbI/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 18:55:39 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14227During her recent sabbatical trip to New Zealand in October/November 2017, Associate Professor of Mathematics Rachel Weir gave a talk entitled “The Changing Face of Undergraduate Mathematics Education: A U.S. Perspective” at the University of Otago and the University of Auckland. Weir also participated in the panel discussion “Promoting Numeracy Skills Across Disciplines,” which was organized by the Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning at the University of Waikato.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/weir-gives-talk-at-university-of-otago-and-university-of-auckland/Nunn Awarded Pennsylvania House Fellowshiphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/i8k_96puA0Y/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 18:46:07 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14220Andrew Nunn ’18 has been awarded a Pennsylvania House Fellowship, which will take him to the state Capitol, allowing him to gain insight into the people, issues and politics of the legislative process. Nunn, a psychology major and education studies minor, will begin the fellowship in January 2018. He also is a Bonner Scholar. This is the fourth consecutive year that Allegheny students have been selected for the fellowship.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/nunn-awarded-pennsylvania-house-fellowship/Hazlett, Wood Awarded NOAA Hollings Scholarshipshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/fw2bUu4QtY4/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 18:27:20 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14225Megan Hazlett’19 and Allyson Wood’19 have been awarded Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarships by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The competitive scholarships include two years of tuition support and paid 10-week summer internships to conduct research, resource management or education projects while working with a NOAA mentor. Hazlett is an environmental science and biology double major; she will intern at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Homer, Alaska, studying the growth of juvenile salmon. Wood is an environmental science major and environmental writing minor. She will travel to North Carolina to intern at the Beaufort Southeast Fisheries Science Center as an Atlantic shark video technician, analyzing footage of sharks from previous years.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/barrys-paper-accepted-by-archiv-der-mathematik/Community Wellness Initiative Featured in Handbook of Sustainability Science and Researchhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/KzcZ7CpRok8/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 18:08:42 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14223Taylor Hinton, program coordinator for the Community Wellness Initiative (CWI), Kerstin Martin, director of the CWI and Carr Hall Garden manager, and Eric Pallant, professor of environmental science, recently published “Teaching Food Security to Low-Income Rural Families in the United States” in the Handbook of Sustainability Science and Research. The article discusses the Community Wellness Initiative’s model for increasing opportunities for food access and education for both youth and adults.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/hart-reed-present-at-international-writing-centers-association-conference/Brigham Publishes Journal Article in Macromoleculeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/qesmBHY5a-c/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 17:56:10 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14217Natasha Brigham ’17 published an article entitled “Manipulation of Crystallization Sequence in PEO‑b‑PCL Films Using Solvent Interactions” in the journal Macromolecules. The article is based on her research with Associate Professor of Chemistry Ryan Van Horn. Several other Allegheny graduates, Christopher Nardi ’15, Allison Carandang ’15, and Kristi Allen ’16, were co-authors of the paper.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/brigham-publishes-journal-article-in-macromolecules/Allegheny’s Andrew Nunn Awarded Pennsylvania House Fellowshiphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/3Wp6cd6xD40/
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 14:46:19 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14211Allegheny College senior Andrew Nunn has been awarded a Pennsylvania House Fellowship, which will take him to the state Capitol, allowing him to gain insight into the people, issues and politics of the legislative process.

Created in 1982 by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Bipartisan Management Committee, the program gives college students a close-up look at the daily workings of government in Harrisburg. Legislative fellows get to attend hearings, committee meetings and the legislative session, as well as conduct research and draft bill analyses.

As a final project, each fellow will research and then draft a piece of legislation to present to the House. Each fellow is placed either in a leadership office or in the office of a committee chairman. Nunn will likely be placed on either the Education or Urban Affairs Committee, based on his interests and experience.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Allegheny students have been selected for the fellowship. “It provides an unparalleled up-close experience with state-level politics,” said Patrick Jackson, director of Fellowship Advising at Allegheny. Jackson has helped students through the application process for the House Fellowship, as well as other competitive awards and fellowships.

Nunn, who is from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, will begin the fellowship in January 2018. He is a psychology major and education studies minor, and is a Bonner Scholar and Alden Scholar on campus. Nunn has classroom teaching experience through a fellowship with Breakthrough San Francisco, a national program working to increase academic opportunity for highly motivated but underserved students, and was an AmeriCorps volunteer in 2015–16 in Washington, D.C.

“My experiences of the inequities of our educational system have pushed me toward education,” said Nunn, “which resulted in me taking a break from Allegheny to teach fifth-grade math and English language arts in Washington, D.C., as well as becoming a teaching fellow with Breakthrough San Francisco. It is this passion for education that has brought me to pursuing a Pennsylvania House Fellowship not by chance, but by an understanding that this is a necessary path for my journey if I want to have a major influence on the many educational disparities of public education — a path that will be full of challenges, learning and new experiences all directed toward action.”

After college, Nunn plans to seek a teaching residency and eventually become an educator in the public school system. He is pursuing several residency programs and has applied for an English Teaching Assistant Fulbright Scholarship to teach in South Korea in 2018–19.

“Andy is going to use the Pennsylvania House Fellowship to gain some experience thinking about education policy,” Jackson said. “He already has quite an impressive teaching record, but he’s interested in serious reform, which can only happen by pulling the levers of government. Given what he’s already accomplished, I’d say Andy is on his way to being a leader in some school system somewhere. Any district in America would be lucky to employ him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wound up in a position of real influence in the coming decades.”

Said Nunn: “Essentially, I’m pursuing this fellowship because of what I hope to gain. In general, this fellowship is going to be an experience unlike anything I’ve ever done. So with that comes an abundance of knowledge I am able to gain. More specifically, if I want to have a major influence on the many educational disparities — funding, retention and teacher education to name a few — I must know the legislative process. The Pennsylvania House Fellowship will provide me with an avenue to directly understand this process, and begin my work toward changing the structure of our educational system.”
____________________________________________________

If you are interested in applying for the Pennsylvania House Fellowship for the upcoming year, contact Patrick Jackson at pjackson@allegheny.edu and visit http://www.pahousefellowship.us/ for more information about the fellowship.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/12/05/alleghenys-andrew-nunn-awarded-pennsylvania-house-fellowship/Lynn McUmber Advocates for Mental Health Awareness in Crawford Countyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/UvUBY5f69fk/
Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:26:42 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14196Allegheny College graduate Lynn McUmber has helped transform the Crawford County Mental Health Awareness Program (CHAPS) from a small drop-in center more than two decades ago into a countywide agency that now serves more than 800 clients annually.

McUmber, Allegheny Class of 1978, has served as the executive director of CHAPS for the past 22 years. After graduating, she began work in various social work positions, with focuses ranging from intellectual disabilities to child welfare to Active Aging. It was when she transitioned to housing and homelessness that she found a greater passion for her work.

“When I returned to Meadville, in working at the county office, I saw how many individuals who experienced mental illness here were in very, very poor living conditions, and really had very little community support,” McUmber says.

“I was able to convince the county office to allow me to focus on that issue, of housing and decent affordable housing for persons with disabilities, especially mental illness,” she says. “That was the beginning of a career of exploring what opportunities are out there, and looking into a system and starting to develop a network of an array of services that would help individuals who have experienced mental illness, and/or individuals who are homeless or near homeless, access affordable housing and be successful in maintaining that housing.”

CHAPS was initially founded in 1988 as a small drop-in center that opened one evening a week for receiving services as a peer-support group but away from clinical oversight.

McUmber joined the program in 1990 and was able to bring her work with the county to CHAPS to begin to focus on housing opportunities. At first it was led by a board of equal members, but by 1995 McUmber was voted into the executive position.
CHAPS has since expanded to offer a range of services that still include the drop-in center, although now it is open daily.

There is also the Community Education and Outreach program (CEO) which hosts various peer- or family-support groups and education programs; Mobile Psychiatric Rehabilitation, which assists members in accessing resources and building skills to be as independent as possible; Housing Solutions, which connect homeless individuals with affordable, permanent housing, and help them develop skills and resources needed to maintain that housing; and the Journey Center, where both staff and members collaborate on projects in jobs such as receptionist work, outreach, publication or data collection. In addition, every year the organization holds a Walk-A-Thon, its fall fundraiser in which volunteers complete a three-mile walk and are sponsored by local businesses who donate monetary pledges.

“Lynn is continually dedicated to the growth of CHAPS,” says Amanda Burke, program coordinator for the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program and Peer Support Program, and a CHAPS employee for the past 10 years. “She remains open-minded and mission-driven when seeking new funding sources and new programming opportunities. She has worked tirelessly to increase the number of services CHAPS can offer the community. She has a true passion for this work as evidenced by her continued efforts to advance the agency’s mission and goals.”

“We always look at ‘what is the need?,’ and then we try and meet that need,” McUmber says. “We always made sure not to chase programs. We are a consumer agency, so everyone shares in identifying what’s needed and decision-making.”

CHAPS’ primary mission has been to provide support for individuals with mental illness, but the agency has been able to expand that to a secondary mission — providing opportunities for individuals and families who are homeless or near homeless, because the two often occur simultaneously.

Burke says the variety of services offered is what makes CHAPS especially successful and vital in Meadville. “We pride ourselves on being a safe and accepting place for people to come and receive the support they are in need of,” she says. “We highly value the many community partnerships we have with other agencies and providers as well.”

McUmber graduated as a psychology and speech major from Allegheny, but says the experience and understanding she gained from the community service are what led her to CHAPS. “The skills and gifts I received were not so much in social matter, but the ability to collaborate and think outside the box,” she says. She has been able to implement those skills in a different approach to mental health care, one intended to address all areas of a person’s life, and focus on recovery and the individual’s gifts.

“If you think about a person’s life and all of the areas of their life that they’re about, mental illness has been thought about as how an individual needs to go to a doctor and get medication. We try and address all the other areas of a person’s life, which includes their housing, what your income is, do you have friendships, do you have a purpose in life, be it a job, volunteer work, somewhere you’re needed? Do you have the skills that you need to manage your home and your finances? Your spirituality, your family, your friends. Mental illness brings a lot of loss in different areas, and we try and create opportunities through programming so people can regain those things.”

McUmber’s work can be clearly seen in CHAPS’ impact today. Last year, the group served 810 individuals; helped 187 households establish permanent housing; had 114 members actively volunteering; and through the Journey Center, helped 40 members gain employment in the community. Many of the workers at CHAPS have experienced some form of mental illness as well or came to CHAPS in a time of need, and through their programs have made great strides and are now trained in administering those same programs.

“Lynn is an excellent leader and director,” Burke says. “She has made it her life’s work to improve the lives of those who come through CHAPS and the community as a whole. She has the ability to find the good in every situation and identify the gifts and strengths of those around her. She is kind, caring, funny and empathetic. It is my honor to work alongside her as well as learn and grow from her experience.”

Says McUmber: “This has been a wonderful life. As far as a job goes, it’s been an incredible opportunity to be a part of this movement. CHAPS evolved in a slow process, but blossomed out mindfully. And I’ve developed so many long-lasting friendships and have seen such amazing and great things happen in people’s lives.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/30/lynn-mcumber-advocates-for-mental-health-awareness-in-crawford-county/Grassroots Campaign Propels Allegheny College Student to Borough Council Seathttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/dD21BHo4RYQ/
Tue, 21 Nov 2017 19:04:56 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14174Morgan Boyd’s campaign for New Wilmington Borough Council was “as grassroots as it gets,” he said.

“It was me and a picket sign,” the 19-year-old Allegheny College student said. And a lot of walking, talking and listening.

Running as an independent, Boyd collected the most votes — 241 — in the five-person race for four open council seats on Nov. 7. The lifelong New Wilmington resident will take office in January in the 2,200-person borough, located about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh in Lawrence County.

Boyd saw opportunities for economic growth in his hometown. So, he decided to enter the race and wasted no time in getting started. He gathered signatures from registered voters to get on the ballot, planted yard signs and pounded the pavement for face time with citizens at their homes.

“I wasn’t visibly shaking but mentally it was rough,” Boyd said of his first few door-to-door visits. But he quickly became comfortable speaking with voters about his platform and answering their questions.

“When you start going out and talking to all of those different people, you start to see this incredible diversity of ideas, of interest, of ideologies,” he said.

On the Monday before Election Day, Boyd canvassed the borough from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And once voting began, he spent all day — from 7 a.m. when polls opened to 8 p.m. when they closed — standing outside the borough’s sole polling place to greet voters.

The most profound moment of that experience, Boyd said, came near 7:30 p.m. as the stream of voters began to wane. A senior citizen arrived at the precinct after a half-mile trek from his home using a motorized wheelchair.

“I walk over, shake his hand and say ‘Hi, I’m Morgan Boyd, and I’d appreciate your vote for council today,’” Boyd recalled. “… And he looked at me and said, ‘I know exactly who you are. You’re the reason I came here to vote tonight.’”

This is Boyd’s first elected office. He’s eager to learn but already has shown his ambition and potential for leadership. In summer 2016, Boyd attended both the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “I was on the floor of those conventions when both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were nominated for president of the United States,” he said.

In high school, Boyd served as statewide treasurer for Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America, helping to manage an organization of 12,000 student members, a $2 million budget and a philanthropic effort that raised $58,000.

An economics major and philosophy minor at Allegheny, Boyd participates in the college’s law and policy program and studied philosophy at Harvard University last summer. He’s on track to finish three years of college coursework in two years.

Once his undergraduate studies are complete, Boyd plans to enter a graduate program in public policy at Carnegie Mellon University through a cooperative agreement between that institution and Allegheny. In just four years, he’s looking at earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

For now, though, Boyd is focused on the challenge of being a college student and an elected official. As a council member with a four-year term, he will head a committee, attend meetings, ensure constituents receive appropriate services and explore ways to stimulate economic development.

“So, in a small town, how can you leverage what assets you have to create the best possible standard of living for everybody?” he said. “New Wilmington has these incredible resources we can tap into … It’s all about finding how to leverage those assets to build not just business but sustainable business that is of benefit to the town.”

The New Wilmington Borough Council seat comes with responsibility — but not a paycheck. Like most of his fellow council members, Boyd will balance volunteer public service with the demands of full-time work.

“I look at college as a job,” he said. “It’s classes nine to five — then you go back, you do your work, and you show up for your classes the next day.”

Boyd is quick to deflect the spotlight when asked about winning an election at a young age, noting that voters also chose three other council members in that race. But he does hope one group in particular draws inspiration from his campaign.

“It’s totally possible for a college student to run for public office,” he said. “The problems of today will be solved by the students of today.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/21/grassroots-campaign-propels-allegheny-college-student-to-borough-council-seat/Single Voice Reading Series Welcomes Authors James Davis May, Chelsea Rathburnhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/--3I-BtGOnw/
Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:16:31 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14145Allegheny alumnus James Davis May and Chelsea Rathburn will read from their work as part of the College’s Single Voice Reading Series at 7 p.m. November 30 in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center. The event is free and open to the public.Author James Davis May.

May’s first book, “Unquiet Things,” was published in 2016. Other poems have appeared in Five Points, The Missouri Review, New England Review, New Ohio Review, New Republic, and The Southern Review. In 2013, he won the Collins Award from Birmingham Poetry Review, and has received scholarships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Inprint, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar. May, who graduated from Allegheny in 2004, is a professor of English and creative writing at Young Harris College.

Chelsea Rathburn was raised in Florida before earning her master’s of fine arts at the University of Arkansas. Her first full-length collection, “The Shifting Line,” won the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award, and in 2009 she received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, The Southern Review, New England Review, The Threepenny Review and Ploughshares. She is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Young Harris College.

For more information about the Single Voice Reading Series, contact Frederick F. Seely Professor of English Christopher Bakken at cbakken@allegheny.edu

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/21/single-voice-reading-series-welcomes-authors-james-davis-may-chelsea-rathburn-2/Allegheny Senior Art Projects to Be Presentedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Iw6dgDD5oP8/
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 15:33:40 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14129The Allegheny College Art Galleries will display the work of graduating seniors as well as art majors and minors from the Advanced Studio Projects seminar course in Doane Hall from Dec. 5-15, with the opening ceremonies on Tuesday, Dec. 5, starting at 7 p.m.

Elijah Prince is this semester’s sole graduating Studio Art Major, and his specialty is portraits in a variety of drawing styles.

Lauren Erdman and Alyssa Lisle integrate their research interests in psychology with their work: Lisle challenges preconceptions of beauty with ceramic sculpture, and Erdman’s installation uses fabric and patterning as analogies to the organization of biological structures.

The reception and the exhibit are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 12:30 to 4 p.m.; Saturday, 1:30 to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.

The Art Galleries, which are wheelchair accessible, are located in Doane Hall of Art, east of North Main Street between College and John streets in Meadville. For more information, call (814) 332-4365.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/17/allegheny-senior-art-projects-to-be-presented/Orchesis: A Peek Behind the Curtainhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/f-V3mB7Jhs8/
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 21:01:43 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14075Orchesis Dance Company has been performing its annual shows for years, and the group has grown from a small company into more than 100 members per year. The production is now an autumn tradition on the Allegheny campus, one of the most attended events each year. But what the audience doesn’t see is the months of work leading up to the two-hour final product.

It is one of the biggest productions on campus–this year it was staged on Nov. 8-11–and it begins a full year before the actual performances, on the nights of the previous year’s recital. Dancers arrive for the shows hours early, partly to get in costume and stage makeup, partly to stretch, and partly to vote on the next year’s board members. On the final night of performances, the last of the board positions are announced, and next year’s show is set in motion. (Choreographers pictured below)

The show begins to form in the spring, when members who have been part of the company for at least one year can propose choreography for a dance, with the elected board choosing which ones to include in the next year’s show.

In the fall, the audition process begins on a Saturday two weeks into the new academic year, a two-day process where every dancer who auditions is placed into at least one piece. By the following Monday, rehearsals begin and the dances start to develop. (Picture from auditions below)

Kalena Grimes ’19 has been in Orchesis for three years, and this was her second year as both the Historian board member as well as a choreographer. “As a board member, I feel as if I am able to give something back to the company after all that it has given me. I am able to make a difference in the company and help it grow each year to become more meaningful to all of the company members. Being a board member doesn’t allow me to brag or be boastful, but instead it allows for others to expect more from me. That alone motivates me to build the company to be as strong as possible.”

The choreographers have eight practices–one per week–to construct their pieces and get them show-ready. “You have to find a balance between the time it takes teaching choreography and the time you need to clean the dance, and depending on how long your piece is it can feel like a rush to the finish line,” says choreographer Gavi Winer ’18. (Picture from the final dress rehearsal below)

Every aspect of the show is student-designed–the choreographers pick out costumes, student tech members run the sound and lights, and the Orchesis board manages every aspect of the promotion and logistics of the show–creating posters, ordering costumes, handling news releases, scheduling the various dress rehearsals. The final show is entirely a group effort, and it shows in the pride that every member feels in presenting their work to the audience.

The week leading up to the shows is when costumes are worn, stage makeup is layered on, and the lighting cues are set, and suddenly the show feels real. Anticipation builds until the first show night–Wednesday, the Community Show, where professors, Allegheny staff, and the Meadville community get the first look at the production. (Below is the group photo from Carissa Lange’s ’80s Mashup piece)

“When I see my dance on stage I feel proud and accomplished,” says Grimes. “My dancers have brought my vision to life the past two years and I couldn’t have wished for a better outcomes. The dancers are very dedicated so the costumes and lighting simply enhance their incredible talents. Orchesis is an outlet for me, one that allows for me to interact with a rather large group of incredibly talented humans. I am forever grateful for each and every person that orchesis has given me. I am thankful for each rehearsal, performance and every other experience I have had because of Orchesis. It is so much more than a dance company to me, it is an additional 90 or more people that I consider to be family.”

Emma Wasko is a first-year student, and says her favorite part of the process was getting to meet and bond with people sharing the same love of dance. “As a freshmen, you’re coming into life at college knowing no one and scared out of your mind, so it’s nice to meet other people who you can actually get along with,” she says. “When I auditioned, as soon as I walked into the auditorium, everyone was SO nice, optimistic, and welcoming. Auditions went well, and I ended up making it into three pieces! It was also a great opportunity to meet upperclassmen, who gave great advice about Allegheny and about life, honestly.” (Pictured below is Emma Wasko in Toni Donofrio’s piece “Lay Me Down”)

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/14/orchesis-a-peek-behind-the-curtain/Allegheny College Receives $590,000 Gift to Support Center for Business and Economics, Student Scholarshipshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Dzy_EBoc0ao/
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 16:09:21 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14035Allegheny College alumnus Lance Zingale and his wife, Karen, have made a $590,000 gift to support Allegheny’s Center for Business and Economics (CBE) and student scholarships at the college.

The Zingales’ commitment will establish a $500,000 endowment to fund initiatives at the CBE, which provides business-related internship, research and other experiential-learning opportunities for students.

Lance Zingale, a 1977 Allegheny graduate who majored in economics, is executive vice president and general manager, major markets, at Sykes Enterprises Inc., in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida. He has served as a judge and funded prizes for the CBE’s Big Idea Competition for the last four years. Students participating in the annual contest prepare and present proposals to fund concepts for businesses, nonprofit social ventures, research and community engagement initiatives.

“Lance Zingale personifies alumni who give of their time, talent and treasure to their alma mater,” said Chris Allison ’83, Allegheny trustee, CBE co-director and entrepreneur in residence. “As important as this significant gift is, Lance’s years of commitment to our students as a judge for the Big Idea Competition and mentor is perhaps even more significant. He is truly changing lives, and the Allegheny community is deeply grateful for his involvement and support.”

In recognition of the Zingales’ generosity, the Center for Business and Economics has renamed its Big Idea Competition in their honor.

In recognition of the Zingales’ generosity, the CBE has renamed the Big Idea Competition in their honor. Beginning next year, the contest will be known as the Zingale Big Idea Competition. This coming spring, Lance Zingale also will join the CBE Board of Visitors, which advises faculty and staff in the Department of Economics on industry trends and other opportunities.

“Allegheny, next to my family, has had the greatest influence in my values and in how I think and how I approach life,” Zingale said. “I give Allegheny a lot of credit, 40 years later, for that … and I want to do a lot for the school.”

Zingale said he considers himself to be an “early-stage investor” in the CBE, which was established in 2015. The return on this investment, he added, is seeing Allegheny and its students gain more prominence for creativity and innovation in business.

Continuing to develop a strong business education program is critical for Allegheny and for preparing students to succeed in business careers, Zingale said. And he hopes the gift will spur other Allegheny graduates, particularly fellow economics majors from his era, to join him in investing their time and financial resources in the CBE.

“I wanted to give back and encourage and challenge other alumni to be engaged with the Center for Business and Economics,” he said. “At this launch stage of the Center, I don’t know of another place where you can have such a big impact so quickly and see the results of your support.”

In addition to their gift to the CBE, the Zingales will provide Annual Fund Grant Scholarships for two Allegheny students in each of the next five years.

The Zingales’ commitment supports the College’s “Our Allegheny: Our Third Century Quest” comprehensive fundraising campaign. As of Oct. 31, the campaign has raised $149.3 million toward its $200 million goal. Learn more at allegheny.edu/campaign.

The agreement guarantees JCC graduates acceptance, with junior standing, into Allegheny’s highly rated bachelor’s degree program in environmental science. Students must have completed JCC’s environmental science degree and meet a minimum cumulative grade point average requirement to be considered for the program at Allegheny.

Students who complete courses identified in the agreement as part of their associate’s degree should be able to complete the bachelor’s degree in four semesters at Allegheny.

“Allegheny and JCC share a similar passion for our students,” said Ron Cole, provost and dean of Allegheny College. “We are excited for the access to educational opportunities provided with this agreement and to building on this relationship.”

“JCC’s articulation agreement with Allegheny expands the ways in which students can take advantage of the top-notch academic programs available at both institutions,” said Marilyn A. Zagora, JCC’s vice president of academic affairs. “We look forward to helping students make use of this agreement, and we’ll continue to explore ways to further develop our partnership with Allegheny.”

JCC’s environmental science degree is designed to help meet the academic and professional needs of students seeking careers related to environmental science and other disciplines associated with the intersection of nature, human institutions, and scientific study.

“Allegheny’s environmental science department has long been dedicated to teaching students to solve real-world environmental problems,” noted Professor Eric Pallant, department chair. “More than a dozen Allegheny faculty with exceptional breadth and depth in environmental problem-solving work shoulder-to-shoulder with students to make the world more sustainable.”

The competitive scholarships include two years of tuition support and paid 10-week summer internships to conduct research, resource management or education projects while working with a NOAA mentor. Hazlett and Wood are among 110 students nationwide receiving the scholarship in 2017.

Hazlett is an environmental science and biology double major from West Middlesex, Pennsylvania. Through the Hollings Scholarship, she will intern at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Homer, Alaska, studying the growth of juvenile salmon.

“When I first heard about the Hollings Scholarship, I thought it sounded like such an amazing opportunity,” Hazlett said. “I never knew exactly what I wanted to study; I just knew that I loved studying wildlife and being outside. Since then, I’ve really come to love marine ecosystems, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity. Now, I am beyond grateful for receiving this coveted award.”

In summer 2016, Hazlett worked as a conservation education intern at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium and as an intern at Goddard State Park for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Last summer, she participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Hatfield Marine Science Center at Oregon State University. While there, Hazlett completed a project exploring the effects of ocean acidification on the behavior of a North Pacific flatfish.

Wood, of Buffalo, New York, is an environmental science major and environmental writing minor. In summer 2018, she will travel to North Carolina to intern at the Beaufort Southeast Fisheries Science Center as an Atlantic shark video technician, analyzing footage of sharks from previous years.

“I was inspired to apply for the Hollings Scholarship after discovering that I love working with aquatic organisms and being in the field,” Wood said. “My decision to apply was further cemented by my Environmental Science 201 class, where Dr. (Benjamin) Haywood taught us about aquaculture and the overfishing that is threatening fish populations. I applied for this scholarship because I want to have a role in revitalizing our fish populations and oceans.”

Wood learned about the Hollings Scholarship from Casey Bradshaw-Wilson, Allegheny visiting assistant professor of environmental science. In summer 2016, Wood assisted Bradshaw-Wilson with research on the round goby, an invasive fish in French Creek. Wood also earned a place on a prestigious 2017 Fulbright Summer Institute in the United Kingdom, where she took a field biology course at the University of Sussex.

increase public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy;

recruit and prepare students for public service careers with NOAA and other natural resource and science agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government; and

recruit and prepare students for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science and to improve scientific and environmental education in the United States.

At the end of their summer internships, Hollings scholars present their results to scientists and peers during the annual Science & Education Symposium. Scholars also can apply for funding to present their research at up to two scientific conferences.

Pictured above, from left: Allyson Wood and Megan Hazlett

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/09/two-allegheny-college-students-awarded-noaa-hollings-scholarships/Allegheny College Civic Symphony, Wind Symphony to Performhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/hxEISBuOncI/
Thu, 09 Nov 2017 15:07:07 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14024The Allegheny College Civic Symphony with 43 students and the Wind Symphony with 83 students will perform on Sat., Nov. 18, and Sun., Nov. 19, respectively, beginning at 3:15 p.m. each day in Shafer Auditorium. Both concerts are free and open to the public.

The Civic Symphony is led by Dr. Jennifer Dearden and will feature Allegheny alumnus and music faculty member Tom Leech ’86 as a horn soloist. The Wind Symphony is led by Professor of Music Lowell Hepler, who is also director of bands at Allegheny College.
The Civic Symphony Orchestra performance consists of Symphony No. 101 “The Clock” by Franz Joseph Haydn, “Horn Concerto No. 1 in D” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (featuring horn soloist Leech, adjunct music faculty), “Two Songs Without Words” by Gustav Holst, “Perpetuum” by Paul Barker, and “City of Steel” by Doug Spata.

The Wind Symphony begins with “Mayflower Overture” by Ron Nelson. Following will be “Of Sailors and Whales” by Francis McBeth, “October” by Eric Whitacre, “March des Parachutistes Belges” by Pierre Leemans, “Vesuvius” by Frank Ticheli’s, “Keystone Post March” by Olan Butt, a former teacher of Dr. Ronald Stitt, assistant director of bands at Allegheny. Stitt wrote the arrangement, and he will conduct the performance.

There also will be an “Overture on Themes” from the “The Wizard of Oz.” Featured melodies will include “Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead,” “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “The Merry Old Land of Oz,” “If I Only had a Brain,” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/09/allegheny-college-civic-symphony-wind-symphony-to-perform/Allegheny’s Instrumental Chamber Ensembles to Performhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/wKbDStW19qk/
Thu, 09 Nov 2017 15:03:54 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14021Allegheny’s Instrumental Chamber Ensembles will perform their biannual concert in Ford Memorial Chapel on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.

There are six groups performing: the Woodwind Quartet, Trumpet Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, Saxophone Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, and Brass Quintet. Each ensemble works with one of three faculty coaches, either Bronwell Bond, Jennifer Dearden, or Julie Hepler. Bond will serve as conductor of the Flute Ensemble for the performance.

The groups will perform a variety of music from composers such as J.C. Bach and Giuseppe Verdi, to Mozart and the Beatles. Together, they have 29 students involved, and two community members. A few students participate in more than one ensemble.

Allegheny College will present its first biennial “Unusual Combinations” Piano Competition on Saturday, Nov. 11.

The competition, sponsored by Kawai America Corporation, features top high school student pianists from western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Two of the judges, Jonathan Kuuskoski and Paola Savvidou of the New Muse Piano Duo, will kick off the competition with a free recital entitled “Music of the Future: 21st Century Piano Music” on Friday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Ford Memorial Chapel.

On Saturday, the final round of the competition is a free recital open to the public at 3 p.m. in Ford Memorial Chapel, featuring the top six to eight performers from preliminary rounds held in the morning. In addition to sponsoring the first prize cash award, Kawai has also loaned a Shigeru Sk-6 piano for use in the competition and the rest of the academic year.

Savvidou previously served as assistant professor of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Michigan, and now as wellness coordinator and global engagement advisor for Michigan’s School of Music, Theater & Dance. Savvidou utilizes Laban Movement Analysis, yoga, and creative movement as part of her teaching strategy to improve alignment as well as deepening expressivity in performance.

Kuuskoski is the interim chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Leadership and director of the EXCEL Lab at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Prior to his tenure at Michigan, he served as director of Entrepreneurship and Community Programs at the University of Missouri School of Music, where he designed and implemented all aspects of their new Music Entrepreneurship program.

Together, Kuuskoski and Savvidou perform as the New Muse Piano Duo, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The ensemble is dedicated to commissioning and performing newly composed works for four-hands and two pianos, with particular interest in exploring the piano in its fullest capacity as a string, percussion, and keyboard instrument.

“Both exemplify the idea of ‘Unusual Combinations’ in their own careers, which is why I asked them to judge the inaugural competition,” said Douglas Jurs, assistant professor of music and piano, who organized the competition. “They have both coupled diverse interests in combination with music to forge successful careers that encompass performance, teaching, and creative entrepreneurship.”

Kuuskoski will be in residence on Friday to work with Allegheny students interested in pursuing a profession in the creative or performing arts. He will hold an interactive workshop on Friday at 3 p.m. in the Campus Center room 206, called “Shooting for the Moon: Reversing Career Assumptions to Achieve the Impossible.” The presentation explores a step-by-step process for inspiring students to identify one big career goal, reverse assumptions about that goal, and convert what may seem like an “impossible” idea into a realistic, and potentially innovative, pilot project. Students interested in pursuing a profession in the creative or performing arts, as well as students interested in pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors after graduation, are especially encouraged to attend. Refreshments will also be served during the workshop.

On Saturday, Savvidou will hold an additional optional interactive workshop called “Move Your Way Through Stress” from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Wise Center Dance Studio. It is open to competitors, parents, and the Allegheny community. Savvidou recommends participants wear clothes they can move in.

Savvidou and Kuuskoski will be joined as competition jurors on Saturday by Allegheny’s Alec Chien, the third judge. Certainly no stranger to Meadville audiences, Chien first came to prominence upon winning the gold medal at the 1986 Gina Bachauer Competition, beginning an intercontinental career. After years of traveling for concerts across the world, he came to Allegheny to teach as artist-in-residence and professor of music. Retiring in 2016, Chien continues to be active as a performer, teacher, and Meadville community advocate.

Competitors will perform at least two contrasting pieces memorized from two different composers, lasting from between six and 12 minutes. There are two rounds, the preliminary round in the morning, and the final round a recital in the late afternoon that will be live-streamed online. There are over $10,000 in prizes and scholarships offered, including a $1,000 First Prize, and several Allegheny Music Department Scholarships.

The competitors also have the option of entering to win the Unusual Combinations Prize by either writing a short essay or presenting a visual, which show how music and another personal passion intersect in the student’s life. Faculty from Allegheny will judge the entries.

The Unusual Combinations Prize and competition finalists will be announced at 2 p.m. Saturday, prior to the final round of performances at 3 p.m.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/07/allegheny-presents-first-unusual-combinations-piano-competition/Kleinschmidt Talks Vitamin C, Cancer Cells at Slippery Rockhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/ajHDwPCtIhk/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:39:59 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14007Ann Kleinschmidt, professor of biology, biochemistry and neuroscience, gave an invited talk at Slippery Rock University on October 20 titled “Vitamin C Pushes Cancer Cells Over the Edge.” The presentation was based upon the senior project of Emily Horosko ’17. Ann was able to reconnect with two former Allegheny College students, Miranda Sarrachine Falso ’04 and Paul Falso ’05, who are both on the faculty in the Biology Department at SRU.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/kleinschmidt-talks-vitamin-c-cancer-cells-at-slippery-rock/MacNeill Miller Essay Publishedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/D8OWpEvL6Zc/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:32:38 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=14004Assistant Professor of English John MacNeill Miller published an essay, “Composing Decomposition: ‘In Memoriam’ and the Ecocritical Undertaking” in a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Contexts comprising select papers presented at this year’s meeting of the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies association. The essay uses ‘In Memoriam,’ Alfred Tennyson’s poem about his best friend’s death, to examine how representations of decay affect our ability to think ecologically.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/bowden-coauthors-paper-examining-dirt/Thomas Publishes Essay as Artwork Tours Countryhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/fW4tEmq1i_c/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:26:13 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13999An essay by Ian F. Thomas, a staff member in Allegheny’s art department, has been published as an afterword in the Edward Ederle retrospective exhibition catalog.

Thomas’s art work has been continuing to tour the country in the exhibition titled “Mindfulness: Mental Heath and Art.” This exhibition has been shown at The Virginia Museum of Art, Lynchburg College, and Ohio Craft Museum, among other locations, and will finish its tour next month at The Fuller Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. Thomas also has had two solo exhibitions, one at BlueOrange Gallery in Houston, Texas, and the other at CASP in Lubbock, Texas.

His artwork was a finalist in the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics in Janesville, Ohio, and one of 60 artworks that were chosen from more than 1,100 entries internationally. Additionally Thomas was selected to be part in the “Contemporary Ceramics 2017” exhibition in Athens, Ohio. He had two exhibitions in association with National Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference in Portland. “Recursive” at Also Know As Gallery and “Politics of the Figure: Ideologies of Failure” at the Archer Gallery at Clark College.

Thomas was a visiting artist at Texas Tech University and is currently currently working on a project with West Virginia University as a visiting artist.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/thomas-publishes-essay-as-artwork-tours-country/Patterson Wins Ezekiel Board’s Choice Awardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Nsca86dIyT8/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:13:53 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13997Costume Shop Supervisor Miriam Patterson was honored with the Ezekiel Board’s Choice Award for the costume design of the Playshop Theatre’s November 2016 production of “A Civil War Christmas.” The designs of the Board’s Choice recipients will be put in an exhibit to tour some of the colleges in the USITT Ohio Valley Section, and they will also be displayed at the national USITT conference in Fort Lauderdale in March.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/patterson-wins-ezekiel-boards-choice-award/Hart Presents Research on Women in the Militaryhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/WeH3IctkQYs/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:11:06 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13995Associate Professor of English and Director of Writing Alexis Hart presented some of her research on women in the military on the panel “Remembering Differently: Re-Figuring Women’s Rhetorical Work” at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference held in Dayton, Ohio, on October 4-7.

Hart and Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Director of Speaking Jon Wiebel also presented a roundtable session titled “Collaboratively Fostering Student Voices in Writing and Speaking” at the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts (PCTELA) conference held in Pittsburgh on October 20-21.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/hart-presents-research-on-women-in-the-military/Olson’s Latest Book Publishedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/T_Mt9l5OW6c/
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:09:44 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13993Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies Carl Olson’s latest two-volume book, “Sacred Texts Interpreted: Religious Documents Explained,” has been published by ABC-CLIO. The two volumes are collections of primary source texts from religions around the globe accompanied by Olson’s commentaries and introductions to the literature.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/03/olsons-latest-book-published/Allegheny Jazz Band to Perform Annual Concerthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/FaHtxsCULOA/
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:20:15 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13991The Allegheny College Jazz Band will perform their annual fall concert on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3:15 p.m. in the lobby of the college’s Henderson Campus Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

The program repertoire includes, “The Way You Look Tonight,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “The Chicken,” “The Way We Were,” “Big Swing Face,” “Groovin’ Hard,” “How Deep is the Ocean,” “Spinning Wheel,” and “Cheesecake.”

Instrumental soloists and a vocal soloist will be showcased.

Prior to the Jazz Band performance, the Mallet Ensemble will perform, beginning at 2:30 p.m.. Performance repertoire includes “Rainbows,” “Evening Prayer,” “Little Fugue in G Minor,” and “The William Tell Overture.”

Both performing ensembles are under the direction of Stephen F. Corsi.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/02/allegheny-jazz-band-to-perform-annual-concert/Orchesis Dance Company Stages Annual Recitalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/6_dfzdotPpY/
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:18:41 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13989The Orchesis Dance Company will hold its annual dance recital with four shows Nov. 8-11 in Allegheny College’s Shafer Auditorium. The Nov. 8 performance at 7 p.m. is the designated Community Premier Show for members of the Meadville community and Allegheny faculty and staff. The shows on Nov. 9-11 start at 8 p.m. All shows are free and open to the public.

The production is entirely student-run, from choreography to stage setup, and has been one of the most attended events on campus. Students begin with choreography proposals in the spring of the previous year, and then in the fall hold open auditions for each piece. Every student who auditions is guaranteed one dance, to make the organization as inclusive as possible. Once each student has been cast, the choreographers have eight weeks of rehearsals to construct their pieces and get them performance-ready.
This is the first year the company is also raising money for a philanthropy. Donations will be given to Creating Landscapes, where it will fund a scholarship for children to enroll in the Summer Landscapes program, a three-week, arts-infused learning experience with dance, music, creative writing, math, science, languages, and visual arts. Orchesis members “dormstormed” across campus for spare-change donations, and raised $364 to support the scholarship.

Samantha Bretz, this year’s president of Orchesis, “fell in love with the opportunity to be in a completely student-run dance organization, where creativity could flow, and confidence could be built.”

“Now, going from freshman year as a dancer, sophomore year as a choreographer, junior year as a board member, and senior year as president, I’ve seen the evolution that it’s gone through, but also what has remained constant – for me, that’s the inclusivity,” Bretz said. “Anyone who wants to dance, whether you have had training or have not, you have the chance to be on stage to present in front of your peers, to express creativity, and build your character as a performer or a collaborator. Orchesis to me has taught me how to be a team player and a team leader.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/02/orchesis-dance-company-stages-annual-recital/Two Allegheny Alumni Hold Prestigious Stegner Fellowshipshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/MPUYj_i3Zvo/
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:35:53 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13979Having one graduate serving as a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University is worth mentioning. But having two from Allegheny College holding those creative writing fellowships at the same time is cause for celebration.

Allegheny alumni Graham Barnhart ’07 and William Brewer ’11 both currently hold Stegner Fellowships, named for the late Wallace Stegner, founder of Stanford’s Creative Writing Program.

“Perhaps the most prestigious fellowship available to writers is the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford. These are very, very competitive, and the list of writers who have received them over the years reads like a who’s who of contemporary American literature,” says Christopher Bakken, Frederick F. Seeley Professor of English and English Department chair at Allegheny.

Brewer was awarded his fellowship in 2016 and is overlapping (the fellowships run for two years) with Barnhart, a 2017 recipient. “It’s simply astonishing that two Allegheny alums have won these and that they are there at the same moment,” says Bakken.

In awarding the fellowships, Stanford’s Creative Writing Program considers the quality of the candidate’s creative work, potential for growth and ability to contribute to and profit from the university’s writing workshops. Each year, five fellowships are awarded in fiction and five in poetry. The recipients receive modest living stipends, attend regular workshops and have access to the university’s resources.

Brewer visited his alma mater in October 2017 as part of the Single Voice Reading Series and was featured on a “PBS Newshour” segment that same month focusing on his book of poetry, I Know Your Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2017) about the opioid crisis gripping his native state of West Virginia.

As an undergraduate at Allegheny and later as a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, Brewer said he “wanted to write about anything else” other than his home state. The opioid crisis, however, “was inescapable. Acquaintances were dying. My home was changing. It’s so bad now that the state has run out of money to help low-income families pay for funerals. I started to do some research — 780 million pills were consumed in 10 years in West Virginia. People who live there felt like they had no control over their lives, watching people they know become addicts.”

The book’s jacket describes Brewer’s poetry as “uncanny, heartbreaking, and often surreal. I Know Your Kind is an unforgettable elegy for the people and places that have been lost to opioids.”

Brewer’s previous chapbook, Oxyana, received a 2016 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. Brewer’s work has appeared in Boston Review, The Iowa Review, Kenyon Review Online, Narrative, The Nation, A Public Space and other journals.

Brewer says he is currently working on another book of poetry and a novel. “If I’m not writing I get grumpy and sad,” he says. After finishing the fellowship, Brewer says he eventually would like to teach.

Barnhart, a native of Titusville, Pennsylvania, holds a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from The Ohio State University, and is a veteran of the U.S. Army. His work has received the 2016 Jeff Sharlett Memorial Award for Veterans and the 2015 Chad Walsh Poetry Prize, and his work has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, The Sewanee Review, Waxwing and Prelude, among other publications.

“I’m working on a collection of poems that draw from my military experiences. After graduating from Allegheny, I joined the Army and became a Special Forces medic,” says Barnhart. “I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan then transferred to the Ohio National Guard in order to attend grad school at The Ohio State University. While there I deployed again to Afghanistan. I like to think of my poems as set in the context of war rather than simply being about war. I am interested in trying to reconcile what it means to be an artist and a soldier while trying to acknowledge and navigate the privilege that my position as a straight, white, American soldier affords me when it comes to writing about war.”

Barnhart said he, too, was deeply affected by the area in which he was born and raised. “Pittsburgh tends to get a mention here and there, but the whole region has been deeply influential to me, though not often explicitly in the work,” he says. “I think any kid from Titusville who happens to pass through the oil fields in Iraq would have to wonder at the strange trajectory that brought us from Colonel Edwin L. Drake (America’s first successful oil driller) to the present. I wouldn’t be writing any of these poems if I hadn’t been lucky enough to grow up and go to school where I did.”

Barnhart and Brewer meet regularly in the Stegner workshops at Stanford.

“Will’s great. I’ve been admiring his work for a long time,” says Barnhart. “I Know Your Kind is a beautiful book and difficult in the very best sense, so I was really excited to get to work with him. He just gave a Single Voice reading, and we were talking about what a landmark personal experience that is for any writer who studied at Allegheny. Along with the mentorship of professors like Dr. Bakken and Dr. (James) Bulman, the Single Voice series can be entirely blamed for my having ended up a poet, and I think Will feels the same way.”

Photos: Top Image–William Brewer; Inset — Graham Barnhart

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/11/01/two-allegheny-alumni-hold-prestigious-stegner-fellowships/Allegheny College to Add Field Hockey, Men’s Lacrossehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/NHU3FRb1ENQ/
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:19:18 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13973The Allegheny College Board of Trustees has authorized the addition of field hockey and men’s lacrosse to the school’s varsity athletic offerings.

“We are very excited to add field hockey and men’s lacrosse to Allegheny’s athletic program,” stated Allegheny College President Dr. James H. Mullen, Jr. “These two sports will afford opportunities for excellent student-athletes from across the country to be part of a nationally-recognized academic community, and contribute to a proud athletic tradition that extends back to the founding of the NCAA.”

Field hockey will begin play in the fall of 2019, while the inaugural season of Gator men’s lacrosse will be spring of 2020. The search for a head coach for each program will begin immediately.

“Men’s lacrosse and field hockey have been on our radar for several years,” said Portia Hoeg, Allegheny Director of Athletics and Recreation. “However, we did not have the proper resources in place to create a solid foundation for additional sports.”

Along with the addition of two new varsity programs, the Board of Trustees has also authorized construction of a new artificial turf competition field at the Robertson Athletic Complex, while the existing locker room and athletic training facilities at the complex will also be renovated and enhanced.

“It has always been important to begin new programs at a time when we could adequately invest in our resources,” Hoeg stated. “We are extremely excited to upgrade several of our athletic facilities, and add an additional turf field to benefit not only lacrosse and field hockey, but all Gator athletic programs. We will also staff each program and our support personnel at a level to assist in the health, wellness, recruitment, and game coverage of the two additional varsity programs.

“This is an exciting endeavor for Allegheny College and Gator Athletics,” Hoeg explained. “We are thrilled to welcome a new crop of students to our Gator family, and to gain exposure in many more markets. Our standard of excellence both in the classroom and on the field will continue to be high.”

The two additions bring the number of varsity athletic teams at Allegheny to 23, and the school will now field a team in every sport sponsored by the North Coast Athletic Conference. At the NCAA Division III level, 236 schools currently sponsor men’s lacrosse, while 165 sponsor field hockey. With the introduction of Allegheny’s programs, all 10 NCAC member schools will now offer men’s lacrosse, while the Gator field hockey program will join seven other full-time NCAC institutions, as well as Earlham College, which is an NCAC field hockey affiliate member.

Field hockey and men’s lacrosse are the first sports added by Allegheny College since 2006, when women’s golf was introduced. Currently, over 400 student-athletes compete for Allegheny in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and volleyball.

It’s quite another to have those same discussions in the country where democracy was born.

Allegheny College sophomore Jesse Tomkiewicz was one of 23 students representing 11 different countries who participated in the Athens Democracy Forum in Athens, Greece, in September. The goal of the annual forum, hosted by The New York Times, is to bring students together from around the globe at the American College of Greece to discuss the challenges facing democracy that year. Students work together in teams to write a white paper on the chosen challenges, this year, climate change and inequality.

The different backgrounds, experiences, viewpoints and ideologies of the participants — and how those differences shaped the discussions — was eye-opening, said Tomkiewicz, a political science and philosophy double major from rural Freeport, Pennsylvania.

“It was an incredibly diverse group,” he said. “That was probably the most valuable part of the experience, talking to people from all over the world.”

Being with like-minded students interested in talking about and shaping the future of democracy — in Athens, of all places — was exhilarating, he said.

“This is about going to a place where I’m with a dream team,” of fellow participants, Tomkiewicz said. “These individuals are not just really bright; these are some of the best students I’ve been around. It was truly intellectually challenging.

“I benefitted more than anyone at the conference because I (had) never left the U.S. Here I focus on the judicial process and political theory. I had no experience in international politics. … I learned more in those nine days (in Athens) than I would have taking a semester’s worth of classes.”

The trip was one of many firsts, including Tomkiewicz’s first plane ride out of the country. He swam in the Aegean Sea, attended a speech by former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and stood at the top of the Acropolis.

“It was enchanting being on top of the Acropolis, knowing that people like Socrates had physically been there,” he said. “I’m from a country where our history is a few centuries. We’re talking about a place that goes thousands of years back. Being in a place with that kind of history, that was really something.”

Tomkiewicz is already heavily involved in campus and local politics — he’s the vice president of Allegheny’s College Democrats and a field director for the Crawford County Democratic Party — but left the conference wanting to do more to further democracy, particularly for voters in rural places like his hometown.

“There has to be grassroots, bottom-up efforts” to address the challenges facing rural voters, Tomkiewicz said.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/26/allegheny-sophomore-attends-democracy-forum-in-greece/Allegheny College Professor to Speak on Governing Rural Americahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/IhrRo1OZl6o/
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 17:19:03 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13959Allegheny College Assistant Professor of Political Science Zachary Callen will speak on “Governing Rural America: Political Change and Limited Resources’” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, in the Campus Center Room 301/302. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Callen will discuss the problems with which rural communities struggle, which range from deindustrialization and depopulation to the opioid epidemic. His presentation will address the ways in which local government in rural locations struggle to provide services and grow their economy. Based around a series of interviews with leaders from a small rural community, the project tries to grapple with the question of how communities decline gracefully.

The address is part of the 2017-18 Karl W. Weiss ’87 Faculty Lecture Series, which features professors from various departments representing the diversity of scholarship at Allegheny.

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is a centuries-old tragic tale of star-crossed lovers, feuding families, and “violent ends,” taking place in Verona, Italy. The play captures the passions of teenagers experiencing independence, love, and familial duty during an important phase of their lives. Beth Watkins is directing the play, with stage-manager Rachel Ellis, Betsy Sumerfield choreographing the dance and stage combat scenes, and Jim Bulman serving as dramaturg for the production.

“We are conceiving the production as a rehearsal of ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” said Watkins, “where the audience will see actors warming up and preparing to rehearse. They will be wearing rehearsal clothes, adding hats, skirts, collars, and various costume pieces throughout our Act I. As the play progresses, wooden rehearsal swords will become steel, lighting will move from rehearsal light to full stage light, and scenery and props will become more ‘of the world of the play.’ By our Act II, we will be fully located in Verona, Italy in the late 15th century.”

Though the play has been performed across the world thousands of times, it has maintained its fame over the years for a reason.

“I am so excited to be a part of this show,” Wilson said. “It’s one of those stories that has been written off as somewhat cliche, but it’s such an iconic play and is definitely still worth seeing and performing. You get to become part of a community and a history of people all connecting to the same text, one that is able to span the centuries and bring people from all backgrounds and walks of life together.”

The Playshop Theatre has also invited the Meadville Area High School ninth grade to attend a special morning matinee, to align with their freshman year curriculum studies of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for non-Allegheny students, senior citizens, and Allegheny employees. Admission is free for Allegheny students with identification, but they are asked to make reservations.

For more information or to order tickets, contact the Playshop Theatre box office at (814) 332-3414.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/24/alleghenys-playshop-theatre-presents-romeo-and-juliet/Fall Into Allegheny Provides High School Seniors With a College Experiencehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/obXbE2w6N2s/
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 15:25:45 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13945High school seniors have the opportunity to take an immersive look at a student’s life at Allegheny College on Sunday and Monday, Nov. 5 and 6, eating in the dining halls, following a personalized schedule, and sleeping in residence halls as part of the Fall Into Allegheny event.

The two-day event begins at the 2:30 p.m. check-in on Sunday followed by sessions held in the Henderson Campus Center, including a panel of students and faculty who discuss different aspects of the Allegheny experience, and an Academic Fair with representatives from various academic departments, including the Gateway and the Learning Commons.

From there, each student enjoys their own personalized schedule. They have dinner with an Allegheny student host, and can pick and choose from various fun-filled on-campus events to attend Sunday night. On Monday, they awake and after breakfast in a dining hall, they choose classes to attend that match their interests, and can fill in the gaps with sustainability-themed Green Tours, talk with Financial Aid counselors, and meet with athletic coaches.

For more information and to register, visit http://sites.allegheny.edu/fallintoallegheny/ or call (800) 521-5293.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/24/fall-into-allegheny-provides-high-school-seniors-with-a-college-experience/Allegheny’s Center for Political Participation Featured on Civic Engagement Education Websitehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/2KXviyop3tw/
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 14:34:01 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13942Allegheny College’s Center for Political Participation (CPP), under the direction of Political Science Professor Brian Harward, has been chosen as the first “civic engagement center” to be featured on a special website that focuses on teaching civic engagement.

Elizabeth C. Matto, associate research professor and director of the Center for Youth Political Participation and Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, reached out to Harward as a result of the success of the CPP and the new Law & Policy Program.

The website is meant to serve as a companion to the volumes “Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen” and “Teaching Civic Engagement across the Disciplines.” On the site, visitors can find examples of how the authors included methods of teaching active citizenship into their curriculum and can reference such items as sample syllabi, class projects and assessments.

The site also is intended to be an ongoing resource for educators and will be updated with how-to guides for incorporating methods of instruction to foster active citizenship, spotlights of civic engagement research and programming, and interactive platforms that will allow visitors to make comments and offer suggestions.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/24/alleghenys-center-for-political-participation-featured-on-civic-engagement-education-website/Kim Tillotson Fleming to Visit Allegheny College as Executive in Residencehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/JdbNf1EOk6E/
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:39:14 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13930Kim Tillotson Fleming, chair and chief executive officer of Hefren-Tillotson, Inc., a privately held Pittsburgh-based investment firm, will visit Allegheny College as its executive in residence on October 30-31.

The Executive in Residence Program, sponsored by the college’s Center for Business and Economics, is designed to connect students and faculty with prominent business executives who spend several days on campus speaking about their life experiences in business, paths to success, and lessons learned.

“As a trustee at Allegheny College, my favorite times have been when we are interacting with the bright young student minds,” Fleming said. “I am honored to be the executive in residence this year and hope to share some words of wisdom that will be meaningful to the students as they prepare to make a difference in the world.

Fleming is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in economics and holds several professional designations. She is a chartered financial analyst charter holder, a graduate and former board member of the Securities Industry Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and has completed the Center for Fiduciary Studies Certification program at the University of Pittsburgh.

She is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research, Pittsburgh Society of Financial Analysts (former president), and the Financial Planning Association. In 2015, Fleming was named one of nine Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania, and in 2009, she was voted one of the “Top 25 Women in Business” by the Pittsburgh Business Times. In 2003, she was honored by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as one of “Pennsylvania’s 50 Best Women in Business.”

Fleming has served as president of Hefren-Tillotson since 1996, and in December 2010, was elected chair and chief executive officer. The firm offers comprehensive financial planning and investment advisory services for individuals, foundations, trusts, and qualified retirement plans.

In October 2017 and 2012, Hefren-Tillotson was awarded No. 1 Top Workplace in Western Pennsylvania, and in 2012, Fleming received the Top Executive award for medium-sized companies by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Also, Fleming has been actively involved with local, national, and international project-related mission trips, including annual youth group work camps.

She and her husband, Curt Fleming, have two sons, Grant and Todd, both Allegheny graduates.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/23/kim-tillotson-fleming-to-visit-allegheny-college-as-executive-in-residence/Allegheny College Named Among Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges in the Nationhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/fznvzS8Yjls/
Fri, 20 Oct 2017 13:30:12 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13922Allegheny College has been named among the Top 50 best liberal arts colleges in the United States in the 2018 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education U.S. College Rankings.

Allegheny ranked No. 47 among all liberal arts colleges in the nation, and No. 128 of more than 1,000 schools, colleges and universities identified in their annual student-focused rankings. The rankings take into account a school’s resources to effectively deliver teaching; whether it effectively engages with its students; the outcomes of the students who attend; and the school’s environment, including efforts to attract a diverse student body and staff.

The rankings also include the results of an annual survey of more than 200,000 current American students. The Times Higher Education U.S. Student Survey examines students’ engagement with their studies, interaction with faculty members, and overall satisfaction with their experience, among other questions.

“Being recognized among the nation’s best liberal arts colleges is a great honor,” said Ron Cole, provost and dean of the college at Allegheny. “Yet we are even prouder of our students and graduates, who are applying their liberal arts education to make a difference on our campus, in their communities and around the world.”

The recognition follows other recent honors:

U.S. News & World Report has named Allegheny College the sixth most innovative national liberal arts college in U.S. and one of the top 100 national liberal arts colleges in the country. U.S. News & World Report also recognized Allegheny as a school committed to providing students the best educational experience through programs and unique opportunities, and recognized the college among the top 50 national liberal arts colleges in the Best Value Schools category.

The Princeton Review named Allegheny one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education in the 2018 edition of its flagship college guide, “The Best 382 Colleges.”

The Princeton Review also featured Allegheny in its “Guide to 375 Green Colleges,” its annual guide to the most environmentally responsible schools. The guide highlights schools with exceptional commitments to sustainability.

The Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, also included Allegheny on its annual list of top colleges and universities in the nation for green initiatives, institutions that the Sierra Club calls “America’s coolest schools.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/20/allegheny-college-named-among-top-50-liberal-arts-colleges-in-the-nation/Allegheny’s Game-changing Greenhouse Takes Roothttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/CsJjIxjn2zE/
Wed, 18 Oct 2017 14:55:01 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13919The building is in some ways like any other of its kind, a cozy box of protection against the elements, a source of warmth and light for the leafy green things that will soon grow within.

But the newly built greenhouse in Allegheny College’s Carr Hall garden is different, too, in one fundamental, game-changing way: It produces more energy than it consumes.

“When you have a greenhouse, you expect to pay a lot in electricity and heating costs,” said Kelly Boulton, Allegheny’s sustainability coordinator. “This is flipping that narrative. It shows how possible it is to have a greenhouse without a large energy budget and with a small carbon footprint.”

The key? Groundbreaking solar panel technology.

The roof of the greenhouse is a collection of luminescent solar concentrators, or LSCs, a novel photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from “wasted” light. The panels capture and convert wavelengths of light that plants cannot use into electricity while allowing photosynthetically active light to reach the plants below.

The Allegheny greenhouse is among a small number to utilize luminescent solar concentrators, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Ian Carbone said.

“We’re on the front edge of this,” Carbone said.

The greenhouse will extend a relatively short growing season, increasing production of fresh fruit and produce that is consumed on campus and shared with the community through a mobile food market. It will also serve as a hands-on lab for students and visitors to learn about energy use and food production, renewable energy, thermodynamics and more, Carbone said. A touch-screen monitor mounted to a wall inside Carr Hall displays energy consumption in real time.

“It raises awareness of where our food comes from and the energy that goes into the production of our food,” he said. “It also highlights an important problem, which is that local food isn’t always the most environmentally friendly” when grown in a more typical energy-intensive greenhouse.

Carbone, Boulton and Christine Scott Nelson Professor of Environmental Sustainability Eric Pallant helped secure a $37,500 grant that paid for the panels and heating system. The E2 Energy to Education grant from Constellation, an Exelon company, was part of $380,000 the company awarded to 17 projects nationwide “designed to enhance students’ understanding of science and technology, and inspire them to think differently about energy.”

The construction of the greenhouse itself was partially funded through a grant from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Owen Ludwig, a 21-year-old environmental science major from Monclova, Ohio, helped take the greenhouse from blueprint to reality, finalizing the design, choosing contractors and obtaining permits. It was a chance to work with his hands doing the science he loves, Ludwig said.

“I feel like I’ve gotten to leave a very cool and tangible thing on this college campus,” he said.

Sarah Nathan, a senior from Toledo, Ohio, majoring in environmental studies, spent part of the summer developing lesson plans that incorporate the greenhouse. She said she hopes the greenhouse and the LSC technology can be a model for other, larger-scale farming operations.

“That’s a really good application of the greenhouse. Students can be looking at the technology we’re using, assessing how feasible that is for farmers in the area, and if it’s not feasible, then what other options do they have for eating local food in the winter?” said Nathan, 22.

Nathan and Ludwig have both worked with Carbone on the idea of creating a flexible photovoltaic material that could be rolled out over areas for larger-scale or commercial use.

“I’m excited about producing energy and taking advantage of this land resource, this farm land, where there’s a lot of space,” Carbone said. “There’s not a lot of roof space in the country but there are a lot of fields and there are a lot of places where people are growing food where we can potentially also be generating sustainable energy if we’re smart about it.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/18/alleghenys-game-changing-greenhouse-takes-root/Allegheny College Welcomes Five New Trusteeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/A4rOukCn8Us/
Tue, 17 Oct 2017 14:32:20 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13907The Allegheny College Board of Trustees has added five members, including: Dr. Yvonne Hobbs Allen, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jon Davis, Dusty Kirk, John Kutz and Julie Skattum, all alumni with long histories of engagement with the College.

Dr. Yvonne Hobbs Allen ’72 of Bratenahl, Ohio, received her bachelor’s degree in English and her master’s in education from Allegheny. She is the parent of an Allegheny graduate, and brings a significant history with the College and higher education overall to the board. She serves as special projects coordinator at Notre Dame College of Ohio, having previously worked for the Shaker Heights City School District as district project coordinator. Allen received Allegheny’s Gold Citation in 2015, honoring her for her years of service to her Ohio community and to higher education in general. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and an advisor and member of the Association of Black Collegians/Advancement of Black Culture.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jon Davis ’80, of Alexandria, Virginia, was an economics major at Allegheny, is a member of Phi Delta Theta, and played lacrosse at the College. In July 2017, he retired from the U.S. Marines Corps as the deputy commandant for aviation, culminating a long and distinguished career in the Marines Corps. His personal decorations include the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal (twice received), the Legion of Merit (twice received), Meritorious Service Medal (three times received), Navy Commendation (three times received), as well as other campaign and service awards. He is married to the former Carol VanWhy, an Allegheny alumna.

Dusty Kirk ’75, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, earned her bachelor’s degree in English and is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She received her law degree from the Dickinson School of Law and is an attorney and partner at Reed Smith in Cleveland. Kirk focuses on real estate transactions and regulations, and issues that relate to sustainability in development projects. She and her husband, William Caroselli, are the parents of an Allegheny graduate. They also have endowed a support fund for English majors to attend conferences and workshops.

John Kutz ’83 of Kirtland Hills, Ohio, was a double major in economics and German, and is a member of Delta Tau Delta. He earned his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He and his wife, Kathleen, have a son who will graduate from the College in May 2018. Kutz is the retirement sales director at Legg Mason Global Asset Management in Cleveland. He was awarded the College’s Blue Citation in 2008 for his service to Allegheny. He has served on the Alumni Council in a number of capacities, and has been a major force in driving internships and experiential learning opportunities among students.

Julie Skattum ’85 of London, England, earned her Allegheny degree in political science, writing and women’s studies. She is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She received her law degree from The Ohio State University and practiced as an associate attorney with the Kelley Drye and Warren international law firm. She also serves on the board of the American School in London, an international, private, independent K-12 school, where she is the vice chair. She is married to alumnus and former Allegheny board member Dag Skattum.

About the Allegheny College Board of Trustees
The Allegheny College Board of Trustees is the governing body elected to oversee the college. The board’s primary responsibilities relate to policy-making and responsibility for sound resource management of the college. The Board of Trustees is chaired by Mark Campbell, a 1982 Allegheny graduate, and the vice chair is Mary “Missy” Feeley, a 1978 Allegheny graduate.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/17/allegheny-college-welcomes-five-new-trustees/Senior Hernstrom-Hill Wins Stony Brook Short Fiction Prizehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/n0fPbIG65kA/
Tue, 17 Oct 2017 13:04:18 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13903Allegheny College senior Madeline Hernstrom-Hill has won the Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize for her short story “The Church of the Reformed Eden.”

The prize, awarded to an outstanding undergraduate author, includes a $1,000 prize, a full scholarship to the Southampton Writers Conference in July 2018 and consideration for publication in The Southampton Review.

Judge Amy Hempel, author of six acclaimed books of short fiction, selected Hernstrom-Hill’s story from more than 200 entries.

“This story features a remarkably complex, compelling, and humane look at some of the most important issues of the day: immigration, religious extremism, our destruction of the planet, same-sex partners, for example,” Hempel wrote in praise. “But there is never an agenda, rather they appear as part of a decent woman’s experience, a woman who is making her way in Florida to support her family in the Dominican Republic. In strong, assured prose, the author shows us what it is to try to navigate this difficult terrain while protecting one’s sense of oneself and staying open to possibilities that appear in truly surprising forms.”

Hernstrom-Hill, a double major in history and English with an emphasis in creative writing, wrote and revised “The Church of the Reformed Eden” as part of a combined senior comprehensive project and independent study group mentored by Matthew Ferrence, associate professor of creative writing. She described the work as speculative fiction.

“A woman immigrates to St. Augustine, Florida, from the Dominican Republic and accidentally falls in love with a female priest whose religion is on the wacky side,” said Hernstrom-Hill, 21, of Boston. “Everything spirals from there.”

The prize and Hemphill’s praise are validating, she said.

“My great fear, and the fear of a lot of undergraduate writers, is we write as undergraduates and we don’t actually go on and get into this community of people who write (beyond college) and are able to make a career out of writing,” Hernstrom-Hill said. “It’s super validating to have someone in that circle say nice things about my writing. It makes me feel happy about my possibilities after graduation.”

The 12-day conference, her first, is a chance to improve her writing and “see writers who are outside of college and be able to speak to people in the field and get a feel for how you actually do this,” she said.

Hernstrom-Hill credited Allegheny’s creative writing program for giving her the confidence to submit the story for consideration.

“I wouldn’t have produced this without being part of this supportive, very passionate creative writing community,” she said.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/17/allegheny-college-senior-wins-stony-brook-short-fiction-prize/Allegheny Students Make a Difference, One Project at a Timehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/cQKZaQi2mKM/
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 17:57:04 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13880Raking leaves. Building a wheelchair ramp. Replacing a porch.

Allegheny students were among hundreds of volunteers who joined together on Saturday to tackle those and more than 100 other service projects throughout Meadville and Crawford County as part of Make a Difference Day, an annual community service event sponsored by the college, the City of Meadville, Meadville Medical Center and The Meadville Tribune.

Read the Tribune’s coverage of the day here and click on any of the photos below to launch a photo gallery.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/16/allegheny-students-make-a-difference-one-project-at-a-time/Allegheny Boasts Three Sets of Gridiron Brothershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/tv6rm_V10mA/
Fri, 13 Oct 2017 14:29:52 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13865On the practice field and the playing field, Allegheny football in the 2017 season has a family flair.

Three sets of brothers are wearing the Gators’ blue and gold: The Lees, the Antinozzis and the Ballas

Logan Lee is the Gators’ junior quarterback and is a three-year starter. He currently ranks in the top three in the North Coast Athletic Conference in passing yards, completions and touchdowns. He also has been busy helping to mentor his brother, Grayson, who is a first-year linebacker. The Lees come from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

“Playing alongside my brother has been an amazing experience,” says Grayson. “This is the first time in both our careers that we have been on the same team so it is fun being able to joke around with each other on and off the field. I am very excited for the remaining years we have together and am thankful that I have a brother like him to look up to and learn from.”

“Honestly, playing alongside my brother is a new feeling for me,” adds Logan. “We went to different high schools so outside of the backyard, we’ve never gotten to play on the same team. I’m looking forward to the remaining years we have playing together, and I’m very grateful that we get to share this part of our football journey together.”

Proud mom Sonja Lee says: “The fact that Logan and Grayson are playing on the same college team is even more rare for us, I think, for a couple of reasons. The first being they went to different high schools so they have never been able to play on the same football team. The second being we are nine hours from Allegheny so for both of them to choose Allegheny (being in completely different majors) is not all that likely, either. Now they make the nine-hour drive home together. So needless to say it is very significant to me. I am very grateful to Allegheny and Coach Hammer for working with us and making it happen. My favorite image so far this year has been seeing Grayson high-five Logan when Logan came off the field after scoring a touchdown. I couldn’t have been more proud of them.

“I remember right after Grayson committed he texted Logan asking him when he thought the locker rooms were going to be finished. Logan’s response was ‘OUR locker rooms will be finished by the end of spring break.’ Grayson and I both knew then that he made the right decision.”

The Antinozzi brothers are from Brookhaven, Georgia. Vito is a junior linebacker who has been injured during this season. He did not play his sophomore year, but saw plenty of action as a first-year gridder in 2015. Dominic Antinozzi is a first-year offensive lineman, lining up at left tackle.

“I really enjoy playing with Dominic,” says Vito. “He really is an awesome player to watch. This is the first time we have played together since 2008.”

“The last time I played football with my brother, the Under-13 Panthers lost every game, and I had a great time,” says Dominic. “Being able to play with Vito at the collegiate level at a program like Allegheny is an awesome experience and I can’t wait to do it for the next two years.”

The Balla brothers come from New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Tyler Balla is a junior running back who has been a two-year starter. He currently ranks in the top three in the conference in rushes, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Chase Balla is a first-year defensive back and has seen significant playing time in all the games this season at both cornerback and as a kick returner.

“Playing with my brother is obviously a lot fun,” says Tyler. “To be able to watch him progress on and off the field is something pretty special.”

Photo by Ed Mailliard. From left, the Antinozzis, the Lees and the Ballas.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/13/allegheny-boasts-three-sets-of-gridiron-brothers/Allegheny College to Host Open House on Oct. 21http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/dwBxzhXA9-o/
Thu, 12 Oct 2017 13:37:25 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13862Prospective students and their families are invited to visit Allegheny College during an open house on Saturday, Oct. 21, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the campus, talk with students and faculty, and discover what a day in the life is like at the college.

The open house program includes a continental breakfast hosted by Allegheny community members, a “Gator Tales” student panel discussion, and an academics and activities fair. The open house will take place in conjunction with the college’s Blue & Gold Weekend: A Homecoming & Family Celebration, and visitors also will have the opportunity to attend a research poster symposium in the Allegheny Gateway, athletic contests and other Homecoming events.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/12/allegheny-college-to-host-open-house-on-oct-21/Former Marine Corps Pilot Joins Allegheny’s Governing Boardhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/NfrZ5yA2RU0/
Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:26:24 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13835Lt. Gen. Jon M. Davis, above left, experienced plenty of exhilarating moments during his career in the U.S. Marine Corps, launching in his Harrier jump-jet from amphibious carriers and from austere forest roads in Germany. Commanding the Marine Corps Aviation Weapons School, he flew with and taught pilots the advanced tactics they needed to win the Cold War and support the Marines on the ground.

“You have to be disciplined and precise in all you do in Marine aviation — especially in a single-seat jet strike fighter,” says Davis, who graduated from Allegheny in 1980 with an economics degree.

During his years as a military aviator, Davis never had to eject from his aircraft — and finished his career mishap free. “Not in over 4,500 hours of military flying,” he says.

In July 2017, Davis, whose call sign was “Dog,” retired after 37 years in the Marines, most recently as the Pentagon-based deputy commandant for aviation, a post he had held since 2014. The job entailed making sure the Marines’ 1,300 aircraft were equipped and prepared to support 47,000 combat-ready Leathernecks.

What does he consider the biggest difference between his first flight as a Marine aviator and his final flight this past summer from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina? “The equipment, training, and standards we have now is so far superior to what we had back then when I was here as a lieutenant,” Davis says. (See the end of this story for a video of Davis’ final flight.)

While Davis and his wife, Carol VanWhy ’83, will continue to live in Virginia, he has joined the Allegheny College Board of Trustees as of Oct. 1. “I want to ensure Allegheny grows, and more importantly, that it produces students with the skills they need to be successful leaders, thinkers, and doers to keep our nation strong,” he says.

He credits his college education with providing the disciplined academic background he needed to succeed in the Marines. “Allegheny’s emphasis on writing, speaking and academic standards helped me advance through the good times — and more importantly, through the tough times. Jay Luvaas, Paul Zolbrod, Earl Adams, and Robert Cupper come to mind as professors who challenged me, cut me no slack, but encouraged me to apply myself.”

Among his most memorable moments in the service was being an exchange pilot with Great Britain’s Royal Air Force and being stationed at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization base near East Germany during the Cold War, he says. He considers another major career highlight leading the Marine Corps Aviation Weapons and Tactics School during the Iraq War. “It was a very dynamic time and I was very proud of how we adapted our tactics and training to meet the threat and support the Marines,” says Davis.

Davis also served as the deputy commander of network warfare from 2006 to 2008 and again as the deputy commander to United States Cyber Command from 2012 to 2014. “Cyberspace is another domain in which we must protect our national interest,” he says. “We have some deep-seated problems but also opportunities. We need to focus on making our networks resilient and how to fight through problems while operating. We need to improve how we train and focus on standards.”

As for the state of the world, Davis says: “I think we are in a period of great geopolitical instability. We will need strong alliances, a strong economy and a strong military commitment to lead with principle internationally.”

Besides serving Allegheny as a trustee, Davis says his “retirement” plans include spending more time with family, giving back to his community and country as a volunteer, pursuing some business opportunities in technology and aviation, flying his experimental airplane, fly fishing, heli-skiing, and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with his wife, Carol.

In typical fashion, Davis chose to leave his formal retirement ceremony to the strains of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.” But before they could complete their march out, Carol ordered the music changed to Etta James’ “At Last.”

Semper Fidelis!

Watch a Video of Lt. Gen. Jon Davis’ Final Flight

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/11/former-marine-corps-pilot-joins-alleghenys-governing-board/‘American Idol’ Finalist Elliott Yamin to Perform During Blue & Gold Weekendhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/l2arRBY8Ssc/
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 19:40:21 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13849Fans who first heard Elliott Yamin sing on “American Idol” will have the chance to see him on stage at Allegheny College. Yamin will perform on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. in Shafer Auditorium as part of Blue & Gold Weekend: A Family & Homecoming Celebration.

Yamin launched his recording career following his appearance as a finalist on the fifth season of “American Idol.” His highly anticipated debut album “Elliott Yamin” debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart was the highest-debuting album by an independent artist in SoundScan history. The self-titled disc achieved gold status in the U.S. and Japan and yielded the platinum hit “Wait for You.” His latest album, Yamin’s fourth, is “As Time Goes By,” a genre-bending collection of originals.

Yamin continues to tour domestically and internationally, including three trips to Africa as a spokesman and advocate to the Malaria no More Foundation. Having been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 16, he has used his platform for advocacy and is a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Tickets are $10 for the general public and can be purchased here. Tickets are free to Allegheny students. For more information about Blue & Gold Weekend, including a full schedule of events, please visit http://sites.allegheny.edu/blueandgold/.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/10/american-idol-finalist-elliott-yamin-to-perform-for-blue-gold-weekend/Allegheny College Featured in The Princeton Review’s ‘Guide to 375 Green Colleges’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/bVh5VLT1IBQ/
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 11:27:08 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13832Allegheny College is once again featured in The Princeton Review’s annual guide to the most environmentally responsible schools.

The “Guide to 375 Green Colleges” highlights schools with exceptional commitments to sustainability and includes profiles of each school’s admission requirements, cost and financial aid, and student body, as well as detailed “Green Facts” for some schools.

The Princeton Review chose schools for this eighth annual edition of its “green guide” based on data from a 2016-17 survey of school administrators that asked them to report on their school’s sustainability-related policies, practices and programs.

Allegheny has been included in each of eight editions.
“We are honored to once again be recognized by The Princeton Review,” said Kelly Boulton, the college’s sustainability coordinator. “It is a good reflection of what we do here. We are constantly making the effort to become more efficient, more sustainable and to reduce waste, and students are constantly involved, pushing that progress.”

The Princeton Review noted many of Allegheny’s efforts and accomplishments in the green movement, including the generation of all campus electricity through wind sources (purchased Renewable Energy Certificates) and on-campus solar arrays; a robust composting program; an on-campus garden that incorporates local, organic produce into the dining halls; and rain gardens, permeable paving solutions and wildflower plantings that help minimize stormwater runoff. Allegheny also is a charter signatory of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment with a climate neutrality goal of 2020 and a participant in the White House’s Better Buildings Challenge to increase building efficiencies by at least 20 percent across campus.

The honor follows similar recognitions earlier this year. The Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization also included Allegheny on its annual list of top colleges and universities in the nation for green initiatives, institutions that the Sierra Club calls “America’s coolest schools.”

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/06/allegheny-college-featured-in-the-princeton-reviews-guide-to-375-green-colleges/Hernstrom-Hill Awarded Short Fiction Prizehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/38LNkmMUTxE/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:15:32 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13830Madeline Hernstrom-Hill ’18 was awarded the Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize for her short story “The Church of the Reformed Eden.” The prize includes a scholarship to the Southampton Writers Conference in July.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/hernstrom-hill-awarded-short-fiction-prize/Karczewski Presents at Undergraduate Research Symposiumhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/vZz5cRT-LJc/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:14:17 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13828Kylee Karczewski (Physics, 2018) spent ten weeks last summer doing research in the Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology program that is jointly administered by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. She presented the results of her research at the Summer Undergraduate Research Program symposium on July 28 held on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The title of her presentation was: “Biophysical Characterization of Mutants of HIV-1 RT Precursor”.Karczewski is incorporating elements of her summer research into her senior project.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/karczewski-presents-at-undergraduate-research-symposium/Bowden Presents Seminar at Oregon Statehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/miTFU8n3PqQ/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:12:17 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13826Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden presented an invited seminar, “Can forest soils clean carbon out of the atmosphere? Soil carbon in temperate forest ecosystems” in June at Oregon State University. Bowden described work that his colleagues, students in his lab, and he are conducting on the inability of forest soils increase carbon storage as a means to reduce effects of climate change. The seminar summarized work conducted in research forests in Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Hungary.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/bowden-presents-seminar-at-oregon-state/Heuchert Delivers Keynote at Historic Psychology Conferencehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/2Ygtsj6usDU/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:10:42 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13824Professor of Psychology Juvia Heuchert delivered an invited keynote address entitled “African Contributions to Peace Psychology” at the 1st Pan-African Psychology Congress in Durban, South Africa from September 18-21. This historic congress was the first time ever in which psychologists from across Africa gathered to deliberate on psychological issues specific to Africa, as well as more general themes related to human rights, inequality, and well-being. Dr. Heuchert was the only African keynote speaker invited from outside Africa to address the congress. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDXSi1iP6tc .

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/heuchert-delivers-keynote-at-historic-psychology-conference/Mattiace Attends Research Workshophttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/A6_TKnLeinE/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:08:42 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13822Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace attended a research workshop on September 21 and 22 sponsored by the Kellogg Center for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame and the Latin American Research Review (LARR) on Societal Responses to Criminal Violence in Latin America with co-authors Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/hart-delivers-keynote/Hart, Thomas Selected for Writing Workshophttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/BfetXUGRa7g/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:06:39 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13818Peer writing consultants Hannah Hart ’19 and Vanessa Thomas ’19 were competitively selected to participate in the Naylor Workshop for Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies held at York College of Pennsylvania on September 15-17. The two consultants presented their research proposals, “Effective Tutoring Methods and the Writing Process of Dyslexic Students” (Hart) and “Social Media and Writing Center Promotion” (Thomas), and received feedback on their projects from faculty mentors in the field of writing studies, including Allegheny’s Director of Writing, Professor Alexis Hart.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/venesky-gaston-publish-research/Miller Publishes Article Exploring Animal Melodramahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/yjX92WNjl4U/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:03:32 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13814Assistant Professor of English John MacNeill Miller published an article in PMLA: Proceedings of the Modern Language Association title “When Drama Went to the Dogs; or, Staging Otherness in the Animal Melodrama.” The article explores the nature and significance of animal melodrama — a wildly popular, but now forgotten form of nineteenth-century theater that included live dogs, horses, and elephants onstage. Miller also workshopped a paper, “The Nature of Political Economy,” at the second meeting of the Vcologies working group in Houston, Texas on September 15-16.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/miller-publishes-article-exploring-animal-melodrama/Olson’s Essays Publishedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/0a1epGTmcD0/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 19:02:21 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13812Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies Carl Olson’s invited essay titled “Ways of Healing and the Roles of Harmony, Purity, and Violent Rhetoric in Japanese Shinto and Shamanism,” has been published in Better Health through Spiritual Practices edited by Dean D. VonDras (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2017, pp. 97-118). A second invited essay of Olson’s titled “The Problematic Nature of the Third Chapter of the Yoga Sutras and its Discussion of Powers” has been published by the Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy 3/1, 2017, pp. 1-8. A third invited essay entitled “Demons, Devotees and Symbolism of Violence in Hindu Mythology” has been accepted for publication in Modern Hinduism in Text and Context edited by Lavanya Vemsani and published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/olsons-essays-published/Wesoky Publishes Book Examining Political Humor in Chinahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Lc_EIyQ_7Gg/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:38:45 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13810Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky recently published a book, co-edited with Kingfai Tam of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, titled “Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China (Springer Humanities).” The book, a product of a multi-year collaboration, grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and international conference in Hong Kong, collects the work of 12 international scholars to examine the role of multiple genres of political humor in China from the late Imperial period to the present day. Wesoky also recently was invited to contribute a piece to the inaugural “Women and Gender in China” blog. Her article, “(Dis)continuities in Chinese feminisms: navigating local and global” can be found at https://www.wagic.org/blank-2/2017/08/29/Discontinuities-in-Chinese-Feminisms-Navigating-Local-and-Global.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/wesoky-publishes-book-examining-political-humor-in-china/Kedzierski Receives Scholarshiphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/xnbvALvDtuI/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:36:52 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13808Creek Connections Project Director Wendy Kedzierski received a full scholarship to attend the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Resources Conference October 12-13 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/kedzierski-receives-scholarship/Harward Presents at European Consortium for Political Researchhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/5u36fGb8RBg/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:35:26 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13806Brian M. Harward, the Robert G. Seddig Chair of Law and Policy, and his co-authors presented their paper “Competition over Issue Agendas: Presidential Signing Statements and Congressional Oversight” at the annual meeting of the European Consortium for Political Research in Oslo, Norway on September 6.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/harward-presents-at-european-consortium-for-political-research/Cosdon Films Segment for Australian Reality Showhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/rx9XDYuYN-o/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:32:48 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13803Professor of Theatre Mark Cosdon flew to London to film a segment for Australian television’s “Who Do You Think You Are?,” a reality program tracing a celebrity’s family tree. The program will air later this year.

At the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s annual conference in Las Vegas, Cosdon chaired a session devoted to the 50th anniversary of the musical Hair and participated in a panel focused on season planning in college and university programs. For the American Theatre and Drama Society, Cosdon chairs this year’s John W. Frick Award honoring the best best monograph published on theatre and performance of/in the Americas. In May/June 2017, Professors Cosdon and David Miller (Department of English) co-led their sixth experiential learning course to Italy.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/cosdon-films-segment-for-australian-reality-show-2/Allegheny Single Voice Reading Series Features Poets William Brewer, Jen Julianhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/0-qiXfp400w/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:59:45 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13784William Brewer, who graduated from Allegheny College in 2011, will join Jen Julian, visiting fiction writer-in-residence at Allegheny College, for a reading from their work at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center. The event, part of the Single Voice Reading Series, is free and open to the public.

Brewer was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, and after Allegheny, he received his M.F.A. in poetry at the Writing Seminars of Columbia University. He is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. In Brewer’s first book, “I Know Your Kind,” which was a National Poetry Series selection, he writes about the opioid epidemic in his home state. A previous chapbook, “Oxyana” received a 2016 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. Brewer’s work has appeared in the Boston Review, The Iowa Review, Kenyon Review Online, Narrative, The Nation, A Public Space, and other journals.

Julian was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and studied English at the College of Charleston. She earned a master’s in creative writing at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and received her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri.

Her short fiction and essays have appeared recently in The Greensboro Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Cleaver, Tahoma Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and New South.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/allegheny-single-voice-reading-series-features-poets-william-brewer-jen-julian/Works by Allegheny Alumni on Display at ArtPrize Ninehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/ghBbWP-TK7U/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 13:01:33 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13772Two Allegheny College alumni are exhibiting their work in ArtPrize Nine, an international art competition that bills itself as the most attended annual public art event in the world.

Zane Miller ’09 is one of five artists on a juror’s short list in the installation category for his work “Two-way Protocols” and one of 25 artists leading a public vote in the same category, putting him in contention for prizes to be announced Friday, Oct. 6. The competition awards more than $500,000 in prizes each year, including a $200,000 Jurors’ Grand Prize and a $200,000 Public Vote Grand Prize.

Adrienne Vittorio ’04 is displaying her work “Horses Being Horses: Western Wild Herd” in the three-dimensional category.

Now in its ninth year, ArtPrize is art on a grand scale, attracting 500,000 visitors to downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. For 19 days — this year, Sept. 20 through Oct. 8 — theaters, restaurants, museums, parks, hotels and other spaces are transformed into galleries showcasing all manner of art. The 2016 competition featured 1,453 works created by artists from 40 states and 44 countries, exhibited in 170 venues. This year’s competition showcases 1,346 entries in 175 venues.

Miller, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in May with the ArtPrize entry as his master’s thesis.

“Two-way Protocols” is an interactive installation of two large suspended cubes made with a two-way mirror. Participants who enter the cube see multiple reflections of themselves and participants in the adjacent cube; viewers on the outside can observe the participants within.

“It creates a kaleidoscopic effect where you see yourself repeated around you in mirrors,” Miller said. “(The people outside) can see you inside the box but you can’t see them. It’s really about our participation with private and public spaces and contemporary communication in the 21st century.”

Miller’s work is part of a larger six-artist show within the competition, “Society of Spectacle.”

“It’s really an honor” to participate, he said.

Vittorio’s piece, “Horses Being Horses: Western Wild Herd,” is a three-dimensional sculpture of five horses made from copper, wood, jute twine, leather and metal. She made a similar sculpture for her senior comprehensive project at Allegheny.

“It’s still surreal to me that I’m doing this,” said Vittorio, 35, of Saegertown, Pennsylvania. “This is way outside of my comfort zone.”

Vittorio and her husband were vacationing at a dude ranch in Montana in 2016 when they met a couple from Grand Rapids. When the subject of art came up — Vittorio’s degree is in studio art — the couple told her about the ArtPrize competition and suggested she enter.

Vittorio, an inventory coordinator at Lord Corp. in Saegertown, hadn’t practiced art since she graduated in 2004. But the thought of entering kept nagging at her and, finally, she did.

Is art now again in her future?

“We’ll see where this goes,” she said. “This might open big opportunities and I might go in that direction. I’ve always been a planner. Now that I’m getting older, I’m trying to get away from planning every aspect and enjoying life and seeing where it takes you.”

Amara Geffen, the Eila V. Bush Professor of Art at Allegheny, has worked with both Miller and Vittorio.

“This is exciting news for Adrienne and Zane, and for the College,” Geffen said. “It clearly reflects their strength as artists, and the strength of our studio art major. To have two alumni involved in one year, one in contention for prizes, is both serendipitous and significant. Having worked closely with both Adrienne and Zane, and knowing how profound this sort of experience can be for artists, I am thrilled for them, and I am proud of them and our program.”

Photo at top courtesy Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University; photo: Matt Gubancsik.

Photo of horses courtesy of Adrienne Vittorio.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/works-by-allegheny-alumni-on-display-at-artprize-nine/DeHart Market and Dinner Features Nature’s Bountyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/Gviwm9EtgdQ/
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:54:40 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13769More than 250 diners who were lucky enough to get tickets to the 15th Annual DeHart Dinner and Market at Allegheny College on Wednesday, October 4, feasted on dishes like sweet potato and carrot puree, kofta with yogurt sauce, and maple ice cream, all grown naturally and healthfully.

Tickets for the dinner were sold out in a record 90 minutes this year, according to organizers. The culinary event honors Jennifer DeHart, an Environmental Science professor who died in 2010 after a five-year battle with cancer.

The dinner was preceded by a market on campus. The band Salmon Frank provided an enthusiastic soundtrack while vendors set up at tables, selling their produce straight to shoppers. Other activities included a game of cornhole, a stationary bike that generates electricity, and table where Nancy Schultz sells flowers.

To get the dinner started in Schultz Banquet Hall, diners were greeted by three coffee dispensers that read “Decaf,” “Outdoorsy Sumatra,” and “Royal Ethiopian.” Happy Mug Coffee, based in Edinboro, roasts 1,000 pounds of coffee a week and sells it just hours after it’s roasted.

Emmett Barr ’17, an Allegheny alumnus, was one of the employees representing the business at the market. “We roast the coffee the same day it’s bought. We get orders in the morning, and roast to fill those orders so people are getting the freshest possible coffee,” he says.

The coffee begins at a farm, which can be located anywhere from Hawaii to Nicaragua to Ethiopia. “It changes hands around four times by the time it gets to us. [The farmers] take it to a mill, they sell it to exporters, exporters sell it to importers, importers sell it to us,” Barr says.

Happy Mug Coffee does not use its exotic, specialty sources as an excuse to skimp on other industry measures. Their coffee is fair-trade and organic, a standard nurtured and built by having a good relationship with the distributors.

“We trust the importers to get a story, find a farm, so we can tell people buying our coffee that it’s sustainable and from reputable exporters, exporters who are fair to the farms,” says Barr.

Happy Mug’s commitment to a higher standard has paid dividends: business is booming.

“We get all our coffee on 1,500-pound pallets,” Barr says. “We get it shipped to us from all across the country. From California, from Minnesota, from New York, it all comes into Edinboro, Pennsylvania. The farmers are making 50 cents a pound, and we’re paying around $5 a pound. By the time it’s roasted, it’s about $11 a pound, and that is way under industry standard right now.” The seven-employee business (four of whom are Allegheny alumni) were in the middle of a big week. “We just got 10,000 pounds on Monday and Tuesday,” says Barr.

Next on the menu was kale salad with Asian pears, dried strawberries, and mint.

The kale was deep green and glistening in the light of Schultz Hall thanks to a splash of dressing. The fruit was liberally scattered within. The Carr Hall Garden, Devenport Fruit Farm, and Heagy’s Orchard provided the fruit, and the kale was sourced by Jim and Robin Coxson and their Strawberry Lane produce farms. Besides a greenhouse to protect their more temperamental produce, the Coxsons have an array of 30-inch beds, 35 feet long.

The kale grows side by side with lettuce, tomatoes, and other seasonal produce. “Our berries are the winners when it’s their season, but lettuce, miscellaneous greens like kale and spinach, and tomatoes are our top three sellers,” says Jim Coxson. They also grow fennel, which according to Coxson, isn’t grown commonly around this area, so they have a healthy presence in the niche market. From the field, it is harvested, cleaned and sold in markets around Crawford County. Strawberry Lane also provided tomatillos, which were used in salsa at the dinner; hot peppers, which were pickled; and garlic, which was incorporated into spaghetti squash and potato pancakes.

Many couldn’t wait for dessert.

“That was the best pumpkin pie I have ever had,” pronounced Ivy Ryan, ’19, signaling an important moment in her quest for the supreme pie. The pie was the centerpiece of the dessert table — a bold claim, considering it was rivaling discs of flan and maple ice cream. “It’s a small-scale farm,” says Garrett Gleeson ’12, who grew the source produce, “I grow about an acre, an acre and a half of vegetables.”

Gleeson’s path from Allegheny student to local farmer began with the natural sciences. “I wanted to be more of a doctor or research scientist, but I actually didn’t get into my first lab choice, I ended up … studying plant microbes. So that was the first step in becoming a farmer. And then, the same thing happened in grad school. I wanted to do more research in the medical field, and I ended up in a forest pathology lab. From that point on, I realized I liked working with plants in general, and that kind of led me here.

“Really, my farm is all about sustainability and diversity,” says Gleeson. “A part of that is crop rotation and the more crops you have, the easier it is to rotate crops … I grow over 100 different varieties of vegetables.” His specialty product provided for the dinner were pie pumpkins. “They have a higher sugar content. If you tried to make a jack-o-lantern out of them, they would rot in a week,” says Gleeson, who works a second job to support himself and his farm.

The Dehart Dinner has become a fixture on campus — and a positive force for sustainability.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/10/05/dehart-market-and-dinner-features-natures-bounty/Allegheny Art Galleries Feature ‘Arab Spring/Unfinished Journeys’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/XXukUSf2F3I/
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:40:35 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13764The art galleries of Allegheny College will exhibit ‘Arab Spring/Unfinished Journeys,’ works by Helen Zughaib, from Tuesday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Nov. 12. An opening reception and artist’s lecture, free and open to the public, will be held Tuesday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the galleries.

Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, living mostly in the Middle East and Europe before coming to the United States to study art Helen currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. Of her work she writes, in part, “I feel that my background in the Middle East allows me to approach the experiences I have in America in a unique way, remaining an observer of both the Arab and American cultures. I believe that the arts are one of the most important tools we have to help shape and foster dialogue and positive ideas between the Middle East and the United States.”Zughaib’s work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe and Lebanon, and included in many private and public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate General, Vancouver, Canada, American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, the Arab American National Museum in, Michigan, and the DC Art Bank collection.

Please note that the exhibit frankly acknowledges the inhumanity of war and highlights the humanity of refugees, and that the exhibit will be closed for fall break between Saturday, Oct. 7 and Tuesday, Oct. 10.

The exhibition is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12:30-4 p.m.; Saturday, 1:30-5 p.m.; and Sunday, 2-4 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays. The Art Galleries, which are wheelchair accessible, are located in Doane Hall of Art, east of North Main Street between College and John Streets in Meadville. For more information, phone 814-332-4365 or visit the art galleries website.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/29/allegheny-art-galleries-feature-arab-springunfinished-journeys/Allegheny to Join Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Societyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/oaSYnJ0jbOQ/
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:20:36 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13761Allegheny College will join nearly 300 colleges and universities from across the country when it becomes a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma honor society.

Chi Alpha Sigma is the first national scholar-athlete society to honor collegiate student-athletes who have excelled in both the classroom and in athletic competition. It recognizes college students who receive a varsity letter in their sport while maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.40 or higher throughout their junior and/or senior years. Allegheny’s membership in the society was made possible by a grant from the North Coast Athletic Conference that enabled membership of each of the league’s member schools.

“We are extremely grateful for the NCAC’s generosity,” said Portia Hoeg, Director of Athletics at Allegheny. “Gator student-athletes have always performed well in the classroom, and now we can proudly induct them into an honor society that specifically recognizes their athletic participation and academic excellence. We are beyond thrilled to be a campus chapter!”
“Our students achieve on the field, in the classroom, and within their communities,” said NCAC Executive Director Keri Alexander-Luchowski. “Membership in Chi Alpha Sigma is a wonderful way to highlight the success of student-athletes across our conference. We are pleased to be able to provide this opportunity.”

– To encourage good citizenship, moral character, and friendship among the high academic achievers in college athletics

– To recognize and honor the individual athlete, his/her team, sport, athletic department, and college or university

– To mentor and provide leadership to other athletes

In addition to maintaining the minimum 3.40 GPA, potential inductees must be of high moral character and have endorsement by his/her head coach. Allegheny tennis coach Jared Luteran will serve as Allegheny’s chapter advisor.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/29/allegheny-to-join-chi-alpha-sigma-honor-society/Allegheny Among Pittsburgh Promise’s Preferred College Partnershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/GS82yau_KF0/
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:04:36 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13757Allegheny College is proud to be part of an inaugural group of 19 Pennsylvania colleges and universities establishing the Preferred College Partners initiative with The Pittsburgh Promise, a nonprofit organization working to advance academic success.

Allegheny and other Preferred College Partners will provide grants for room, board, or books to eligible, accepted students, beginning with the Class of 2018. The schools will also provide transition and academic support services aimed at student retention and success.

“In today’s economy, it is nearly impossible for young people to compete without some specialized post-secondary education,” Pittsburgh Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril said. “Because financial and social barriers prevent many students from pursuing and completing their education and training, the Preferred College Partners initiative will work to help The Promise and post- secondary institutions to remove such barriers and fortify the foundations that all students need to succeed. We know that targeted support services are essential to student success, especially among
low-income and first generation college students.”

This year’s dinner, the 15th, will be held Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. in Schultz Banquet Hall and promises to be no different, with a mouthwatering menu featuring vegetables, proteins, dairy, fruit and other products from local farms and produce grown in Allegheny’s Carr Hall Garden.

Tickets will be sold from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1, and Tuesday, Oct. 2, in both the Henderson Campus Center and Brooks Hall. The cost of each ticket is $15 cash, one Allegheny dining plan meal swipe or $9 Munch/Gator Cash. The 2016 event sold out in four hours.

Diners will have the chance to enjoy pork sausage from Pine Run Farm in Conneautville and a kale salad with dried strawberries from the Carr Hall Garden and Asian pears from Heagy’s Orchard in Meadville, among other treats. The Edible Allegheny student group will make an apple crisp with fresh apples from Davenport Fruit Farm in Meadville.

“It’s an opportunity for students which they don’t get very often, to have a meal that is sourced entirely locally,” Boulton said. “It’s exciting for students to try different kinds of (foods), to know they were grown locally, and to sit at a table with the farmers. The meal is delicious, it’s unique, and it’s exposing students to new things.”

The DeHart Farmers Market, featuring local food vendors, flowers, handmade products, baked goods and live music by Salmon Frank, will precede the dinner, starting at 4 p.m. on Brooks Walk.

The dinner and market are named in honor of the late Jennifer DeHart, who taught in Allegheny’s environmental science program and was integral in the revival of Meadville’s local foods movement and the reinvigoration of the weekly downtown farmers markets at the Market House. She introduced the first local foods dinners on campus to annually showcase what she called “the bounty of Crawford County.” DeHart died in 2010 after a five-year battle with cancer.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/26/15th-annual-dehart-local-foods-dinner-showcases-bounty-of-crawford-county/Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy: Cities, Students Must be ‘Intentional’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/ShWgfzmr5b0/
Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:54:06 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13748Former three-term Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy told students gathered in Allegheny College’s Quigley Hall auditorium Friday that cities must be intentional in attracting talent, forming public-private partnerships, and building a future in order to be successful.

“The reality is, cities that are successful are cities that are making investments in the future,” Murphy said during his lecture,“Reaching for the Future: Competing in the 21st Century.” “Cities that have said ‘We need to make investments, not just to maintain the status quo but to invest in the future.”

Students must be intentional in the same way, he said.

“You will succeed in life if you are intentional about what you want to do,” said Murphy, who oversaw a revitalization of Pittsburgh and is now an Urban Land Institute senior resident fellow and the ULI/Kingbell Family Chair for Urban Development.

Read Erie News Now’s coverage of Murphy’s visit, sponsored by Allegheny’s Center for Business & Economics and the Law and Policy program, here.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/25/former-pittsburgh-mayor-tom-murphy-cities-students-must-be-intentional/Renowned Conservationist, TV Host Jeff Corwin to Speak at Allegheny Collegehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/X005VjYt6ws/
Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:15:36 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13743Allegheny College will welcome Emmy Award-winning television host, author and biologist Jeff Corwin to campus on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. for a lecture, “100 Heartbeats.” The event in Shafer Auditorium is free and open to the public and is appropriate for all ages.

Corwin, executive producer and host of ABC’s acclaimed weekly series “Ocean Mysteries,” has worked for the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems around the globe since early childhood. For nearly 20 years he has produced and hosted a variety of popular television series and specials that have aired in more than 130 countries worldwide.

In 2014, Corwin served as narrator for the IMAX-format film “Galapagos: Nature’s Wonderland,” produced and written by Sir David Attenborough and currently running in IMAX theatres worldwide. In 2010, Corwin served as a correspondent for MSNBC and NBC News covering the impact and recovery efforts of the Gulf oil spill. And in 2009, he executive produced and presented “100 Heartbeats” for MSNBC, a groundbreaking documentary that investigated the plight of our planet’s most endangered wildlife species along with the conservation heroes trying to save them. Corwin authored a book by the same name. He has also partnered with the Wittaker Center to produce and present the IMAX-format film “Expedition Chesapeake.”

A native of Massachusetts, Corwin has established EcoZone, an interactive museum and environmental education center. Based in Norwell, Massachusetts, EcoZone aims to build awareness for the wildlife and ecology unique to the wetlands of southeastern Massachusetts.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/22/renowned-conservationist-tv-host-jeff-corwin-to-speak-at-allegheny-college/10 Autumn Activities You Won’t Want to Miss at Allegheny (and Close By)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/NZtnN0wBvkA/
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 13:38:40 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13653Summer has sailed away, and winter is coming. But don’t despair — autumn is awesome at Allegheny. Check out a few of our favorite fall activities:

Wingfest

Saturday, Sept. 23 (2–5 p.m., Gator Quad)

Six free chicken wings for each student (and a vegetarian/vegan option available too). A wing-eating contest benefiting a nonprofit. Free T-shirts. Need we say more? See the Facebook event for more info.

Watch this video to get a flavor of the event:

15th Annual DeHart Local Foods Dinner, Market and Festival

Wednesday, Oct. 4 (4 p.m., Festival; 6:30 p.m., Dinner)

Sure, you’ll want to enjoy this on-campus dinner featuring all local products — but first check out the market and festival with live music, lawn games and local vendors. (Tickets required for the dinner — learn more here.)

Blue & Gold Weekend: A Homecoming & Family Celebration

Friday, Oct. 20 – Sunday, Oct. 22

It’s Homecoming — only bigger and better. Join alumni, students, parents, families and prospective Gators for this special weekend of celebrating Allegheny. View the schedule here.

Greek Sing

Friday, Oct. 20 (7 p.m., Shafer Auditorium)

Allegheny’s got talent. See and hear it on display at the annual Greek Sing, where fraternities and sororities take to the Shafer Auditorium stage.

Meadville Halloween Parade

Saturday, Oct. 28 (6:30 p.m.)

Head downtown for what’s billed as the largest nighttime parade in Pennsylvania. Learn more here.

Cheer on the Gators

With more than a dozen athletic teams competing in the fall, you have plenty of chances to check out a home game, meet or match and show your Gator pride. View the schedule here.

Area Festivals and Fun

Venture beyond campus to get a taste of autumn in northwestern Pennsylvania: cider mills, corn mazes, farmers’ markets, festivals, outdoor adventures and more. Learn more at visitcrawford.org and visiterie.com. Watch this video to see more of what our region has to offer:

A Quiet Moment on Campus

We’re not exactly impartial, but we think Allegheny has the nation’s most beautiful college campus. And nothing quite compares to the vibrant colors of autumn here. Stop and savor it!

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/20/10-autumn-activities-at-allegheny-you-wont-want-to-miss/Allegheny College Honors Alan Novak and T.J. Rooney as Inaugural Recipients of the ‘Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/b1B4SYn5PeU/
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 12:35:34 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13699Allegheny College President James H. Mullen, Jr. presented the inaugural Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania to Alan Novak and T.J. Rooney, former chairs of Pennsylvania’s Republican and Democratic state parties. The presentation was made during last night’s 33rd Annual Chamber Dinner in Hershey – an annual gathering of 2,000 political, business and labor leaders from across the Commonwealth. Former Governor Tom Ridge, a champion of civility and advisor to Allegheny College on the Prize, was on hand to present the award to the Pennsylvania honorees.

“Civility is part of Pennsylvania’s DNA,” said Allegheny College President James H. Mullen, Jr. “The Founding Fathers who gathered in Philadelphia to discuss Independence had incredible differences. But they argued those differences with civility. That’s what the Prize is all about – proud partisans who compete in the political arena with a commitment to civil discourse.”

“The PA Chamber is honored to partner with Allegheny College to present the ‘Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania’ award at our annual Chamber Dinner,” said PA Chamber President and CEO Gene Barr. “Alan Novak and T.J. Rooney are perfect examples of two individuals with vastly different points of view on a variety of issues, yet still communicate their views in a civil and thoughtful manner.”

This event marked the first time Allegheny College issued the award at the state level. Beginning in 2011, Allegheny College created its national Prize for Civility in Public Life to recognize two public figures on the national stage, one liberal and one conservative, who argue passionately but with civility for their beliefs.

“I am beyond words to share Allegheny College’s first Civility Prize in Pennsylvania with my friend Alan Novak,” said Rooney. “Allegheny College is known nationally as an institution devoted to promoting civil discourse. It will forever be an honor to be associated with this award and a cherished memory to receive it during the Chamber’s premier event of the year.”

“This is a humbling moment I never imagined, not because T.J. and I are former political rivals but because the great friendship we discovered despite our differences is simply a natural reflection of who we are and what we believe in at our core,” said Novak. “We want to thank Allegheny College for not only recognizing the need for civility in public discourse, but ‘the how’ in trying to achieve it.”

Novak and Rooney are both veterans within Pennsylvania politics, having previously served as chair of the state Republican and Democratic parties respectively. In the years since their time as party chairmen, they have come together to form a successful company that focuses on consensus building, leadership development and strategic communications. Novak and Rooney’s unique partnership has put them in demand on the speaking circuit – where they give their individual perspectives on the hot political issues of the day. They are regular contributors to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sunday Currents section and are also frequent guests on numerous state and national news programs.

“The tone and tenor of the conversations in Washington – and, frankly, in many centers of government across the country – have become increasingly more poisonous,” said Gov. Ridge. “Civility is vanishing, and the consequences are great. The Prize seeks to celebrate civility when we see it rather than lament its absence, in hopes that others will be inspired to hold themselves to a higher standard, just as Alan and T.J. have. Allegheny College has successfully established this Prize at the national level. We are pleased to partner with the PA Chamber to bring it home to Pennsylvania.”

Previous winners of the national award include: Senators Diane Feinstein, D-California, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who were recognized in 2013 for their efforts to exemplify civility while leading debate in some of the most contentious issues of that time; the “Women of the U.S. Senate,” who were honored in 2014 for banding together to help end a government shutdown and creating a more civil climate in Washington, D.C.; and in 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, were recognized for the powerful moments of civility they displayed during modern presidential campaigns. The 2017 national award honored the remarkable friendship of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late Antonin Scalia.

To learn more about the Prize for Civility in Public Life, visit Allegheny College’s website.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/19/allegheny-college-honors-alan-novak-and-t-j-rooney-as-inaugural-recipients-of-the-allegheny-college-prize-for-civility-in-public-life/Allegheny Biology Professor to Speak at Symposium Connecting Girls With Female Scientistshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/p7aCcyKutzc/
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 18:23:06 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13654Quick, what do you see in your mind’s eye when you hear the word “scientist?”

For many kids, research shows, the image is of a white male in a lab coat.

It can take exposure to someone of a different color or gender to change the perception of who can be a scientist and what he — or she — can do, said Lisa Whitenack, an associate professor of biology at Allegheny College who studies sharks.

“When you turn on ‘Shark Week,’ it’s almost all male. When you look on TV and in magazines, it’s predominately men,” Whitenack said. “If you’re not seeing yourself, that can be discouraging.”

Whitenack is one of 10 female shark scientists participating in “Shark Tales: Women Making Waves,” a symposium for high school and college-age women organized by the Gills Club. An education initiative of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the Gills Club is “dedicated to connecting girls with female scientists from around the world” and promoting women in science.

Whitenack is the only scientist representing a liberal arts college at the symposium, which runs Tuesday through Wednesday at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

“It’s a huge honor, especially being at a liberal arts college,” she said. “I’m in amazing company with other women I admire and some wonderful up-and-coming shark scientists as well. It also speaks to (what) we do at Allegheny. We’re not small science. We do real science. Some people might think you have to be at big school or a big lab to do science that gets out there and makes a difference and contributes to the field. The fact that (the Gills Club) asked me to do this reflects well on Allegheny, too.”

Whitenack will participate in an “Ask Me Anything” question-and-answer session, dissect sharks with Boston-area students, and give a short talk about weird Paleozoic sharks.

Throughout the symposium, students will get a chance to learn about shark biology, shark brains, conservation efforts and more, Whitenack said. But the biggest message is one personified by the 10 women scientists and keynote speakers, she said.

“Women are here and we’re doing this and you can too.”

The symposium will be live-streamed on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Facebook page. Follow #SharkTales on Twitter to participate in “Ask Me Anything” sessions and to follow symposium events.

For more information about the Gills Club and “Shark Tales: Women Making Waves,” visit www.gillsclub.org.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/18/allegheny-biology-professor-to-speak-at-symposium-connecting-girls-with-female-scientists/Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy to Speak on Competing in 21st Centuryhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/d58uo7gJ7VY/
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 19:01:59 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13611Pittsburgh has become an international model for how a city remade itself. How did that revitalization happen? What were the ingredients and decisions that drove success? What lessons can other cities learn?

Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy will address those and other questions during a talk on Friday, Sept. 22 at noon in Allegheny College’s Quigley Hall auditorium. The event, “Reaching for the Future: Competing in the 21st Century,” is free and open to the public.

Murphy is an Urban Land Institute senior resident fellow and the ULI/Kingbell Family Chair for Urban Development. As a three-term mayor of Pittsburgh between 1994 and 2006, he initiated a public/private partnership strategy that leveraged Carnegie Mellon University’s academic presence to create regional economic development in technology fields and more than $4.5 billion in economic development in the city. Murphy led efforts to secure and oversee $1 billion in funding for the development of two professional sports facilities, and a new convention center that is the largest certified green building in the United States. He also developed strategic partnerships to transform more than 1,000 acres of blighted, abandoned industrial properties into new commercial, residential, retail, and public uses, and oversaw the development of more than 25 miles of new riverfront trails and parks.

Murphy’s extensive experience in urban revitalization—what drives investment, what ensures long-lasting commitment—has been a key addition to the senior resident fellows’ areas of expertise. His talk is sponsored by the Center for Business & Economics and the Law and Policy program.

]]>https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2017/09/14/former-pittsburgh-mayor-tom-murphy-to-speak-on-competing-in-21st-century/New Faculty Join the Allegheny Communityhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlleghenyNewsAndEvents/~3/coCYiORo7f8/
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 18:52:08 +0000http://sites.allegheny.edu/news/?p=13618Ten new full-time professors joined the Allegheny College faculty in fall 2017. We asked them to share some brief background information and another interesting fact or two about their lives so the community could get to know them better.

Christopher Finaret, visiting instructor of economics

Christopher Finaret

Christopher Finaret served tours as U.S. diplomat in both Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His academic and teaching interests include the evaluation of development policy and programming.

Finaret earned his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego, and then a master’s degree in the field from the London School of Economics. And he holds another distinction: he’s a former All-American Ultimate Frisbee player.

Nicole Gross-Camp describes herself as an interdisciplinary environmental scientist interested in influencing long-term, equitable conservation for people and the planet. She holds a bachelor’s in biology from Earlham College and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in environmental studies from Antioch New England Graduate School.

Nicole Gross-Camp

During her doctoral work, Gross-Camp lived with her husband and 20-month-old daughter in the middle of an Afromontane forest in Rwanda. (The couple met while volunteering at a primate sanctuary in Nigeria.) The family returned to Rwanda several years later, along with their son, to live in the town of Butare for a year.

For the last eight years, Gross-Camp lived and worked at the University of East Anglia School of International Development in Norwich, United Kingdom. Her research explores conservation and development interventions and their interactions within society and larger economic context with implications for sustainable and just outcomes. She draws methodologies from ecology, social anthropology, development studies and human geography.

In particular, Gross-Camp focuses on African forests and communities living in or around such forests. “My focus on these areas stems from the significant societal and ecological roles that they play in the lives of millions of people,” she says. “I believe that understanding the role of forest ecosystems in people’s lives is a key step in our ability to ensure a just and sustainable future.”

A keen gardener, Gross-Camp is eager to get involved in Allegheny’s community gardens. “I am an outdoor enthusiast and looking forward to returning to a part of the world where seasons are distinct,” she says. “I have not experienced a proper winter (i.e. with snow!) since I left the States in 2009.”

Anna Hahn-Buerger, Max Kade Writer-In-Residence

Anna Hahn-Buerger

Anna Hahn-Buerger says she wants to bring “a piece of Germany” to the students she is teaching at Allegheny, helping them to become familiar with her language and her country and its literature.

Hahn-Buerger received her Magister Artium in German literature at the Universität Hamburg. As a student, she worked as a creative writing teacher in adult education and as a teaching assistant at her university.

Hahn-Buerger has published three novels and two collections of short stories. Her first novel, Kuerzere Tage (Shorter Day), has been translated into English and is available as an e-book. “As far as my own work is concerned, I’m looking forward to using the treasures of Pelletier Library in order to work on my new novel, which is partly occupied with German immigration to the United States,” she says.

Reading and writing are her favorite interests, but Hahn-Buerger says she also enjoys horror movies and stories. While she adores big motorbikes, Hahn-Buerger plans to rely on a different means of transportation while in the U.S.

“I can’t drive a car or any other vehicle although I took lots of driving lessons in Germany,” she says. “Due to this fact, I will have to discover Meadville on foot, or as we say in German ‘auf Schusters Rappen’ (by the shoemaker’s horses). For a writer this is not so bad because walking gives me the opportunity to discover many things you can’t get hold of while you sit in a car.”

Jennifer Julian, visiting fiction writer-in-residence

Jennifer Julian

Jennifer Julian has written fiction and non-fiction and taught writing workshops in both, as well as classes in literature and film. She has been a college educator for seven years and earned a B.A. in English from the College of Charleston, an MFA in fiction from UNC Greensboro, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri.

Recently, Julian has been researching speculative fiction, specifically political and ecological dystopias. “I’m also interested in posthumanism,” she says, “since speculative genres have a way of investigating how everyday technologies are changing the definition of what it means to be a person, human or non-human, man or woman.”

Julian finds connections across the different genres in which she writes. For example, she says she sees some crossover between speculative fiction and personal essays since there is an exploratory, experimental nature to both.

For Julian, learning about popular science and science history is a “fruitful source of inspiration for story ideas.” She also likes to draw (she’s creating a comic with a fellow fiction writer), and she’s very fond of cats. “I have a large orange Maine Coon who moved with me here all the way from Missouri,” Julian says.

Aravind Mohan, assistant professor of computer science

Aravind Mohan

Aravind Mohan recently earned his doctorate in computer engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit after previously earning his master’s degree in computer science from Governors State University in University Park, Illinois. His dissertation studied the challenges of big data by using workflow-driven techniques that leverage the cloud-computing environment.

Mohan has published several research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the International Journal of Big Data. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery.

His research focuses on big-data management and cloud computing. His broader areas of interests are services computing, online education services, and information retrieval. His research passion is driven by developing the most usable and scalable data-centric tools and techniques that collect some meaningful information from big data in a time and cost-efficient manner, and thereby have an impact on society as a whole.

Mohan says he is passionate about combining theory and practice while teaching computer science courses. From past industry experiences as a software engineer in banking and healthcare, he shared his knowledge on real-world projects with the students that he taught and mentored earlier.

Mohan enjoys traveling and exploring new places and cultures. “It’s tricky for me to travel far because I get lost while journeying to the simplest of places. I was able to address this issue with the help of GPS technology,” he says. A lover of the outdoors, he finds walking and biking to be the best ways to explore the wonders of nature.

Sharane Simon, visiting assistant professor of geology

Sharane Simon

Sharane Simon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum geoscience from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. She received her doctorate in earth sciences (sedimentology and mineralogy) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

“For my doctoral work, I partnered with researchers from the Smithsonian Institute and conducted a multidisciplinary study of an ancient fine-grained unit in north-central Texas,” she says.

She has been a teaching assistant and writing tutor at Dalhousie University.

“I aim to use my knowledge and skills such as field/subsurface mapping techniques, seismic interpretation, and petrography to study ancient, fine-grained dryland river systems,” Simon says.

“My unusual combinations stem from my work experience. I have worked on gas and light oil projects in Trinidad and Tobago and oil sands in Canada,” she says. “At the age of 21, I proposed many oil wells, which were drilled successfully onshore Trinidad. I have also worked with the Black Business Initiative in Halifax to identify energy opportunities through which Black, Nova Scotian businesses and individuals can become a vibrant part of the existing supply chain. I also participated in a board mentorship program, which exposed me to the inner workings of a board and I gained formal training in governance and leadership.”

Jan Starczewski, visiting assistant professor of Modern and Classical Languages

Jan Starczewski

Professor Jan Starczewski has been around the education business, having taught at the middle school and university levels in France and the United States. His higher-education résumé includes teaching at Hartwick College, the University of Memphis, the University of Nice in France, and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, France, a master’s in French literature from the University of Memphis, and a master’s in European history focusing on the early modern period (prior to the French Revolution) from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He will defend his dissertation, “Reevaluating Christianity in the Writings of Rousseau and Diderot,” in December.

“My work focuses on the tension between faith and reason; the seeming antithesis between the revealed religion of the theologians and the natural religion of the French philosophes,” he says. “The traditional narratives of The Enlightenment, particularly in France, depict it as the era of the birth and apex of the secular age. Alongside other historians, I challenge this notion, and show that authors such as Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau were heavily influenced by theological debates of their time, and that their critique of Christianity is more aimed at institutions rather than attacking the essence of it. Thus, I argue that ‘modernity,’ the morning after the French Revolution did not see an annihilation of religion, but rather a transformation of it.”

Among Starczewski’s interests are current events in the world, education and social justice, cooking, and boxing. “I try to keep a curious and sensitive mind about many things,” he says.

“I used to work in fancy hotels and restaurants in the South of France, and have met many celebrities, including Johnny Depp, Bono, Eric Clapton, and many others,” Starczewski says.

Kathryn Tamulonis, assistant professor of geology

Kathryn Tamulonis

Kathryn Tamulonis earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from Dickinson College and her doctorate in Earth and atmospheric sciences from Cornell University.

“Between undergraduate and graduate school, I worked for two years a geologist at an environmental consulting firm,” she says. “I had a two-year fellowship with the U.S. Geological Survey while at Cornell. Following graduate school, I worked for six years in the oil and gas industry. I taught at Slippery Rock University during the 2016–2017 academic year.

“I use sedimentary rocks to understand earth processes and predict natural resource occurrence (natural gas and oil). In particular, I utilize subsurface data (well and seismic data), and rock outcrops to understand how rocks change in sedimentary basins in order to provide insight into how tectonic processes, sea-level, and paleoclimate affect sedimentary rock distribution. I am also interested in landslides and groundwater quality.”

Tamulonis almost chose to attend art school following high school. “I enjoy sketching and painting, but that took a back seat for a bit during graduate school and my time in the oil /gas industry. I now have two small children, and they love when I sketch dinosaurs for them.”

Tamulonis says she is a Philadelphia Eagles football fan and got engaged on the jumbotron at an Eagles home game against the Denver Broncos. The Eagles won!

Qianying Zhang, visiting assistant professor of economics

Qianying Zhang

Qianying “Jennie” Zhang earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from East China Normal University, her master’s in economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and her doctorate in economics from Florida International University. She also taught Measurement Analysis for Business and Economics at Florida International University last year.

Her areas of expertise include econometrics, statistics, finance, macroeconomics, and general economics. Her research specialties include empirical asset pricing, applied econometrics, and macroeconomics.

“My unusual combinations are hip-hop dancing and finance,” she says. “I like logical reasoning, and murder-mystery and detective books.”

Not many people get to relive signature moments in their lives. But Cal Claypool Armistead ’80 was lucky enough to do just that. As a senior at Allegheny, she interviewed future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Graham Nash when he came to perform in concert on the Meadville campus. She got to do it all over again 37 years later when the rock legend appeared at a summer music festival in Massachusetts.

Much has transpired in Armistead’s life: After getting her start in journalism writing for The Campus newspaper, she has written for publications such as The Chicago Tribune and Shape Magazine, and is the author of the novel Being Henry David, a book used in schools to introduce pupils to Henry David Thoreau within a contemporary story. She’s married to Tedford Armistead ’79, who works in information technology for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. They live in Acton and have two grown daughters.